By Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
Abuja
A fire outbreak, which started at about 1. 35pm yesterday gutted the 5th floor, the finance section of the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.
It was gathered that the fire incident occurred just when the Minister of Education was giving his speech at a function holding in the ministry, but for quick intervention of the Federal Fire Service men the fire was able to control before creating more damage.
However, at the time of this report, nobody can ascertain the level of damage caused by the fire and at what cost.
While briefing news men, the Minister of state for Education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, commend the fire fighters for their prompt intervention urging staff to be calm as the fire was put under control.
“You see how many trucks they came along with and I was talking to the man of this location and he has assure that they found the point where the fire started burning but very importantly, nobody is hurt, the fire service people are working.”
She, however, could not tell what time the fire stated, but noted that it has to do with a channel.
“Well I would not be able to tell because I didn’t look at the time. I just know it has something to do with some channel. The fire chief has assured that it does not erupt to another part so they are following the track of the floor. We are happy they can give that assurance.
Federal Fire Service Public Relations Officer, Elechi Collins, said they got the distress call at about 1.35pm and of course our men resolve to attend to the fire promptly as you could see the number of trucks here”.
He assured that they have been able to nip in the bud the spread of the fire.
He, however said the level of damage cannot be quantify at the moment.
He said: “As of now, you cannot ascertain the level of damage because the fire fighting is ongoing. Nobody can ascertain the cause of the fire at the moment the fire started at the fifth flow getting to sixth floor Our men arrived two minutes after the distress call because of the proximity,” he said.
Narrating the experience, Dr. Oru Boniface of the department of strategy in the ministry, said there was a lot of pandemonium as the fire broke out.
He stated that when there are fire incident like this, you need to get people away because there are others who also want to use this opportunity as a way to mesmerize and do all funny things.
