Harmattan: Lagos records 40 fire incidents at weekend

About 40 fire incidents were recorded in various parts of Lagos State at the weekend, Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Seye Oladejo, has said.
Oladejo disclosed this on Sunday at the scene of fire outbreak at a plastic factory in Oshodi.
No life was lost in the fire which started at the raw materials store of the factory.
The commissioner attributed the escalation in fire incidence to the return of harmattan weather to the state.
“We noticed the escalation of fire incidents since Friday when we had a sudden change in weather as harmattan suddenly came back.
“Since then, we have recorded about 40 fire incidents in different parts of the state.
“Fire incidents are mainly caused either by accident or sheer carelessness on the part of our people,’’ the commissioner said.
He appealed to Lagos residents to be more careful, especially as regards the storing of petroleum products in homes.
“As a government, we will continue to respond but we will be happy if the incidents are reduced to the barest minimum; our duty is to secure lives and property of our citizenry,” he said.
Oladejo said government would continue to improve its emergency response services by acquiring more sophisticated equipment for effective disaster management in the state. 
Meanwhile, the management of Rida National Plastics Company Ltd, Oshodi, Lagos is counting its loses after an early morning fire destroyed its property worth millions of Naira on Sunday.
Officials of the Lagos State Fire Service Department battled the fire which started about 7 a.m. for many hours, before finally bringing it under control.
Also, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Police battled to manage traffic, security and safety on the Apapa/Oworonshoki expressway, as sympathisers thronged the scene.
An official of the Lagos State Rapid Response Unit who simply identified himself as `Mr Nature’ told NAN that the fire started at about 7: 00 a.m.
“Due to the kind of products being produced at the company, the fire was difficult to handle because of the inflammable nature of their plastic products.
“Officials of the Lagos State Fire Service battled the fire for many hours , trying to ensure that it did not spread to neighbouring companies in the area, as well as the Ikeja Military Cantonment,” he said.
A staff of the company who did not want to be identified, told NAN that the fire started at about 7:00 a.m., from a bush fire.
He explained that the company had a wide expanse of land behind its fence, which is linked to a nearby Army barracks, adding that the bush fire spread into the company’s premises from the barracks.
“The fire started as a result of bush burning from the barracks in Ikeja, behind us.  It is just a fence that demarcated our company from them.
“Fire from the burning bush spread into our compound and available company personnel made efforts to put it out but water could not immediately put it of.
“All our machines, including the recycling machine, grinding machine and the blender, were all burnt in the incident,” he said.
The incident caused panic on the ever busy Apapa/Oworonshoki Expressway, but officials of LASTMA made frantic efforts to control traffic on the highway.