Yemisi Izuora
The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr Rasak Fadipe, has said that there was no casualty in the fire incident that gutted a tank farm at Ijegun Ibasa in the Ojoo Local Government Area of Lagos.
Fadipe said the service received a distress call at11:35 a.m. that a tank farm belonging to Stallionaire Nigeria Ltd was on fire.
“I immediately alerted the Ojoo fire station to rush to the scene but when I was told that it was tank farm, I signaled all other stations around.
“When we got there and discovered that the fire was raging seriously, I had to call on our Head Office for more fire engines.
“We discovered that apart from the Premium Motor Spirit tank which was on fire, there were four other tanks surrounding it.
“With the help of other emergency agencies like the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), with support from the Nigerian Navy and the Police, the fire was put under control, without any casualty, at about 3:30 p.m.
“Our men are still around, carrying out the necessary checks to ensure that everything is out.
“We were able to put everything under control with the modern fire engines recently acquired by the Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Mr Olayinka Ajaba, a representative of NEMA, said the fire incident was caused by a trans-loading problem.
According to Ajaba, they were trans-loading petrol manually into a tanker when the fire started and it gutted the tanker.
SP Audu Ibrahim, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Ijegun, told Journalists that he and his men ensured there was orderliness throughout the inferno.
Ibrahim said his men were still around the premises of the tank farm to ensure that nobody took advantage of the incident to create any problem.
Meanwhile, residents of the Ijegun Ibasa community where more than 10 tank farms are located have called on the state government to establish a fire service station in the area.
Mr Kazeem Adio, the representative of the community, also told Journalists that there were two fire incidents in the same company in 2016. He said the fire service station, when established, would provide emergency services to the community