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Daily Independent Online. Monday, March 8, 2004.

Federal Secretariat on fire

•NAFDAC, BPE offices destroyed

By Ben Tialobi,

John Oseh

Production Editors and Shola Ogunode, Lagos



Aided by the dry harmattan wind, a ferocious inferno on Sunday swept through the Federal Secretariat Complex, Ikoyi, Lagos razing all 12 floors of the building housing the office of the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration (NAFDAC).

The fire, according to security men at the complex, started on the 11th floor at about 9 p.m. but soon spread to the adjacent wing of the complex which houses the Bureau for Private Enterprise (BPE) and Ministry of Health. The offices of the Head of Service, Nigeria Airways and many others went down in the fire, which continued raging at 1.30 a.m. when Daily Independent left the scene.

Despite spirited efforts of fire-fighters, thick billows of smoke filled the air, as unrelenting golden yellow flames raged angrily and flashed in the skies. Even the trees in front of the building were not spared as the fire spread into them. Explosions from air conditioners rent the air intermittently as office equipment and planks gave cracking sounds which together with the blaring sirens of the fire-fighting vehicles completed the picture of confusion and commotion at the complex. Policemen, senior civil servants and security men, journalists and sympathisers milled around and watched helplessly. Nobody could give the reason of the fire.

The security men who would not have their names mentioned in print said they saw the fire immediately after President Olusegun Obasanjo ended his media chat. Immediately after the media chat, there was power outage. It was the ensuing darkness that made it possible for them to quickly discover the fire. They then called the police who called the fire services.

Aside fire fighters from Julius Berger Plc who said they arrived at the scene at about 11.40 p.m. with about three fire engines and four water tankers, firemen from the Federal Fire Service, the Nigeria Ports Authority and Eko Hotels were also on hand.

But they all appeared helpless as if struck by the sheer magnitude of the task. Some of the Federal Fire Service and Nigeria Ports Authority firemen sat on the sidewalks, others stood at akimbo, all gazing up at the fire as though hoping some miracle would happen to stop the fire.

Explaining why as at 1.30 a.m. not much was being done to subdue the flames, one Victor Konobi who was with the NPA firemen, said they had no water. Even when Julius Berger trucks came in with water, the seven or nine combined fire-fighting trucks huddled together at the backside of the burning building.

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