A portion of the Supreme Court is on fire.
It was gathered that the fire engulfed chambers of three Justices of the apex court.
Details about the incident are still sketchy as of the time of filling this report as the spokesperson of the court, Akande Festus, could not be reached.
The spokesperson for the Federal Fire Service, Paul Abraham, asked newsmen to call back.
Details later…
Punch/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko
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Evacuation orders have been issued for areas close to two central Greek cities threatened by new outbreaks of wildfires.
Citizens in areas around Volos and Lamia have been told to move to safety as the country remains in the grip of a severe heat wave.
Meanwhile, fires continue to rage on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia.
Greece is one of a number of countries currently grappling with wildfires, in which more than 40 people have died.
Two people have died in the fires near Volos, the fire service has confirmed a farmer who died after he went to release his sheep to protect them, and a woman who was in a mobile home in Chorostasi.
Kostas Agorastos, Mayor of Greece’s Thessaly region, which includes Volos, has accused “brainless workers” of starting the fire, according to the Ellada 24 news channel.
He added that it had broken out on four simultaneous fronts.
In Rhodes, where a state of emergency is in place and from where thousands of tourists have been forced to flee, high winds have continued to fan the flames and villages remain at risk.
Some firefighters, who have been battling the blazes for days, have begun to lose hope.
“Every day, every night, we are here and we achieve nothing,” Savas Filaderis, who is from Rhodes, told the Reuters news agency.
“We can’t stop it,” he said.
“Everybody, all the people, they fight. The civil people, the government, they are but… for nothing. I believe we fight for nothing.”
In Southern Italy, fires in Sicily and Puglia have also been fuelled by high winds and tinder-dry vegetation, meaning firefighters have been struggling in many areas to douse the flames and create firebreaks.
BBC/Adebukola Aluko
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Goods and property worth millions of naira have been destroyed in a midnight fire incident at Atakumosa Central Market Ilesa, Osun state
The fire outbreak, according to eye witnesses started at the Post Office section of the market some minutes past 2 o’clock Sunday morning.
Radio Nigeria correspondent, Isaac Haastrup reports that men and officers of the Federal and Osun State Fire Service made frantic efforts to prevent the fire from spreading to other parts of the market.
Our man also reports that combined team of men and officers from Ayeso A’ Division and Ijamo B’ Division were on ground to prevent looting during the rescue mission, while shopowners and sympathizers were making effort to salvage some of their goods.
Though the fire was brought under control around 4 o’clock in the morning, an officer of the Osun State Fire Service who preferred anonymity said the cause was yet to be ascertained.
Affected most were boutiques, food stuff and provision shops.
Efforts to speak with shopowners as at the time of filing this report were unsuccessful.
isaac Haastrup
A petrol laden tanker has been gutted by fire at a filling station in Basorun area of Ibadan.
Radio Nigeria gathered that the tanker was ignited while dispensing it’s content at the filling station.
Consequently,motorists and commuters along the route had hectic time reaching their destination .
Some passersby who spoke with Radio,said the quick intervention of men of the State and Federal fire services prevented loss of lives and damages to property around the site of the incident.
They commended the driver of the tanker for deploying his expertise to drive the tanker out if the filling station to prevent greater havoc.
As at the time of filling this report, the fire has been put out while normalcy is gradually returning to the area
This is the second fire incident occuring at filling stations this week in Ibadan.
Nafiu Busari
Three persons have been reportedly killed in a fire accident at Oke Igbore Titun area of Abeokuta leaving four others injured.
According to witnesses, the fire outbreak was suspected to have been caused by leakage of freezer refrigerant that caught fire from another gas cylinder been used in frying fish in the same room.
Men of the state fire service were reported to have arrived the area on time to assist residents of the area to extinguish the fire.
The victims of the fire accident have been taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba, Abeokuta.
Wale Oluokun
As part of the effort to avoid repetition of fire incidents recorded in the last harmattan period, a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr. Olagoke Akinajo has called on the relevant stakeholders to embark on sensitization programmes ahead of the dry season.
Mr. Akinajo, who is representing Ibadan North East State Constituency 1, in his motion “Need for Oyo State Government to Commence Campaign on Safety Measures against Possible Fire Outbreaks During Dry Season” disclosed that the state had recorded several fire outbreaks that had destroyed goods and property worth of billions of naira.
The Chairman, Committee on Inter-parliamentary Relations recalled that Akesan, Orita-Aperin and Shasha markets fire outbreaks were still fresh in the memory of the people in the state.
The lawmaker urged the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism to educate the people on hazards associated with indiscriminate bush and waste burning as well as the use of bangers and other explosive items in the name of Xmas and New Year celebrations.
Speaker of the House, Mr. Adebo Ogundoyin, in his resolutions, called the attention of the Oyo State Fire Service to be ready to tackle any fire outbreaks, especially during this harmattan period by making sure that trucks are road worthy and loaded with water.
The House also urged the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism to start visiting markets across the state for sensitization on how to prevent fire outbreak especially during the dry season and provide them with fire extinguishers.
Mosope Kehinde
Another fire outbreak was again recorded in Ibadan as a section of the supermarket, known as Grandex store, belonging to the wife of former governor of Oyo state Mrs Florence Ajimobi was gutted by fire.
It was gathered that the fire outbreak was caused by electrical fault.
The fire outbreak which occurred in the evening affected many products at the store before the arrival of fire fighters.
Our correspondent who was at Osuntokun, Bodija, where the store was situated reported that combined efforts by the team of federal fire service and its counterpart in Oyo state prevented the fire from causing total damage to the store.
In an interview, an eyewitness in the area, Mr Bamidele Osinowo said he called fighters following distress calls for assistance from the workers who could not put out the fire.
Mr Osinowo said there was reading newspapers in the area when he suddenly saw smokes which also prompted other men who were around render assistance.
A team leader of the firefighter who did not want his name mentioned said the fire caused by overloading of electrical gadget occurred.
As the time filing this report, security personnel were on ground to secure the area while families, friends and former aids to the late governor of oyo state, mr abiola ajimobi were evacuating products that were not damaged by the fire.
Rotimi Famakin
There was massive traffic on the Kara bridge end of the Lagos-Ibadan highway on Sunday morning after two fuel tankers and a gas tanker went up in flames around midnight.
As of the time of this report, the traffic had extended from the scene of the incident to Ketu and Ojota, making the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) advise motorists to seek alternative routes.
The three tankers said to be heading out of Lagos were said to have hit one another on top speed around midnight, causing a massive fire which is still on at the time of this report.
Despite efforts by the men of the Lagos fire service, the fire is still raging.
Adewumi Faniran
Property worth millions of naira has been destroyed at Ondo corner market, New Court road, Dugbe Ibadan.
Radio Nigeria reporter visited the scene of the incident reports that about ten sewing machine shops were razed by the inferno.
The inferno which started at about 1am very early in the morning was suspected to be as a result of an electrical fault.
According to the traders, the security guard on duty a Hausa man found it difficult to communicate the incident on the phone to the victims due to language barrier.
The victims later contacted the men of the Oyo state fire service who swung into action to prevent further loss of property.
One of the victim engineer Muyideen Olaniyi appealed to the state government to come to their aid as they had no other means of livelihood.
As at the time Radio Nigeria got to the scene some of the victims were parking the debris.
Lillianne Ibomor
The Ondo State government is to embark on a total overhaul of the state fire service for effective delivery.
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu made this known in Akure while inspecting the scene of a fire disaster at Oba Nla area in Akure metropolis.
The fire outbreak which occurred on Sunday night razed five shops and destroyed Property worth millions of naira.
The governor said that the State Emergency Management Agency would be mandated to assess the level of damage with a view to compensate the victims.
An eye witness and shop owner, Chukwuma Chinoso who explained that there was power outage before the incident, affirmed that none of the shops was selling gas or flammable commodities as speculated.
Report says that many houses and shops were destroyed completely as most of the shop owners were not around due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to the trader, an electrical spark could have been responsible for the fire outbreak during which they called the fire service but with complaints of no water, fuel and other logistics.
Olorunferanmi Odofin
Property worth about seven million Naira has been destroyed by fire that gutted out of a storey building along Odo Ona Apata area of Ibadan.
Principal Fire Superintendent, Oyo State Fire Service, PFS II, Mrs Peluola Oyedeji who said they got to the scene as soon as the people in the area called on them, advised residents to ensure prompt call of the fire service to avoid loss of their property.
The two neighbors, Mr Daniel Akinlolu and Mr Sanyaolu Adeyemo ,who said, no life was lost, explained that, series of attempt had been taken to control the fire before the arrival of the fire service.
Speaking with Radio Nigeria, Chairman Ibadan West Local Council Development Area, Mr Adigun Adeniyi who observed that there was no access to water in the area, promised the sitting of a borehole to relief the people of the area of their hardship.
The victim, Mrs Allen Adesola who was devastated could not speak to journalists.
As at the time of filing this report, the fire had been put out, but had damaged a lot of household property worth about seven million naira, as no one sustained injury.
Taiwo Akinola
Lack of basic equipment and inadequate manpower have been highlighted as the bane of efficient firefighting services amid increasing fire incidence rates in the country.
A cross-section of Nigerians who spoke on the development in Abeokuta, Ogun State advocated the need for partnership between the government and the private sector to improve firefighting services.
Olusegun Folarin completes the story.
Olusegun Folarin
As Nigeria is still struggling to contain the spread of Coronavirus pandemic, the country has experienced six different fire outbreaks within two weeks.
Treasury house, a building housing the office of the Accountant-general of the Federation located at Samuel Akintola Boulevard, Garki area of Abuja was gutted by fire on 8th of April this year.
Few days later, officers of the fire service had a hectic day, putting out fire at the headquarters of the Corporate Affairs Commission in Abuja.
The fire outbreak was said to have been caused by an electrical surge from one of the air conditioners in the building.
And just last week, goods worth millions of naira were lost during a fire outbreak at a shopping complex at the popular Dugbe market in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital and after about two hours of raging, the fire was quenched.
In another tragic event on the 16th of April sixteen, fourteen people were said to have died in an inferno that occurred at an internally-displaced-persons, IDPs camp in Ngala Local government area of Borno state.
Just a day after, the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC was the next to record a fire outbreak on the 17th of April.
The fire was said to have affected only the office of the Director of Election and Party Monitoring in the building.
The incidents of fire outbreaks in recent weeks have continued to raise questions on how to forestall fire outbreaks in the country.
It is worrisome that most firefighting gadgets and fire fighting vehicles belonging to government are obsolete. Or how can we talk about the fire incident at Dugbe market last week, if not for the intervention of firefighters from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the incident would have wreaked more havoc.
It is so sad that on many occasions, even when fire fighters arrived early to quench outbreak, they would equally complain of lack of water.
It is imperative for governments to provide state of the arts fire service equipment and build more fire service offices in strategic locations in different parts of the country.
Also, continuous training for fire fighters on modern day firefighting techniques should be put in place.
Awareness programs on fire prevention and what to do during fire incidents should be taught at all public places, markets and religious centers. The existing law on the need to place fire extinguishers at strategic places should be stressed and enforced.
Education through the media on ways to prevent fire outbreaks include putting off appliances when not in use, dangers in overloading of electrical sockets, while people should desist from smoking indoors. Use of phones in kitchens and fueling of generators while in use should be discouraged.
Thunder arrestors should be installed in buildings, while people should employ only the services of qualified electricians as wrong installation could lead to fire outbreak.
To this end, it is pertinent for Nigerians to know that fire destruction is one man’s job while fire prevention is every body’s job.
Olaolu Fawole
The Media Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja has been engulfed by fire.
Details of the incident are sketchy as of the time of filing this report.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, confirmed the incident to newsmen.
More details later…
