Fire guts Niger Govt House, fighting trucks ‘out for routine maintenance’

The Office of the Permanent Secretary in the Niger State Government House was gutted by a fire which  resulted from electrical fault.
The office was under renovation when the fire outbreak started at 12:30 p.m. and it took more than 15 minutes before men  from the state Fire Service arrived to put the situation under control.
Workers in the Government House were seen running for their lives before personnel from the state fire service arrived with three fire fighting trucks.
Office equipment, valuables and sensitive documents were destroyed in the fire incident.
There was no fire fighting truck at the State Government House.
Malam Salihu Bello, the Deputy Controller in  the Niger State Fire Service, who spoke to newsmen at the scene of the fire, said that the quick intervention of the fire fighters helped in reducing the damages.
He said that lack of fire fighting truck in the Government House was not intentional as arrangements were on to station a fire fighting truck in there.
“We have our personal stationed here to respond to any emergency,” he said.
Bello said that the fire fighting trucks used to put out the fire were brought from the various fire service stations in Minna.
Meanwhile, Mrs Mary Berje, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, while reacting to the incident in a statement, said that the fire fighting trucks in Government House were taken out for routine maintenance.