THE GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE COMPANY IN MESS AFTER FIRE BURNED IT SHAPELESS

The Great Nigeria Insurance Company (GNI) Ltd House on Martins Street, Lagos, a 25-storey  was yesterday chopped down in the early morning, on Tuesday.

The Director of the Lagos state fire service, MR RASAK FADIPE, told reporters that his men received a distress call around 6:34 am that the building was on fire.

He said the fire trucks at Onikan Fire Station, with 10,000 litres of water were mobilised to the scene, adding that on getting there, his men discovered that the fire was huge and that the water would not be sufficient.
We had to call for reinforcement from the Sari-Iganmu Fire Station which brought another 10,000 litres of water to fight the fire,”
“We left the island to as far as Apapa to get a functioning water hydrant. So, if you couple that with the traffic challenge, you will see that the fire keeps coming back.”
The team, he said, also found it difficult locating the source of fire as the premises had many combustibles.
“Aside crowd control challenges and the unavailability of water hydrants, we have not been able to locate the source of the fire,
“It started on the ground floor, which had many combustibles. Several cars were parked in the premises and they also led to the escalation of the fire.
“Although the structure was built as offices, most people have converted the offices to stores and warehouses.
“We also suffered from crowd control, with the hoodlums trying to seize our fire equipment from our personnel. They obstructed the adequate positioning of fire trucks and attacked fire men,” Fadipe said.
He said the fire men also brought aerial ladder used to fight fire in high rise buildings to gain access to the affected floors.
He said the first to the third floors of the building were affected, adding that the battle to put out the fire was still on at the time of filing this report.
Fadipe said his men faced crowd challenge on arrival, adding that they battled the crowd to gain access to the building.
He said the thick smoke from the building also posed a challenge to his men, who had to use breathing apparatus to enter the building, adding that the cause of the fire has not been ascertained.
Some said the fire, started the from the ground floor, which must have been as a result of the Numbers of cars that are parked there, saying, it might have resulted from cars fuel or leaking fuel taps from the parking lot.