By KEMI KASUMU
What could have become serous disaster from spread of fire in a filling station, on Thursday, was averted at Lagos Airport.
The fuel station, Fort Oil located in the local area of the MMA2, which was gutted by fire while a 33,000-litres fuel laden truck was about to discharge, had all its dispensing pumping machine razed down including the truck.
As at 3.00pm that The DEFENDER reporter arrived at the scene of incidence, the raging fire was said to have started about one hour earlier.
The reporter which came through the NAHCO/International Airport area got hooked by traffic right from the Concord Press area necessitating that a trek.
While on the traffic, trucks of Federal and FAAN fire services were seen speeding through one-way blasting their sirens as they accelerated towards the fire area.
The fire, which was said to have dished out like bombs of disaster when it started, had been reduced to the truck area upon arrival of our reporter but officials of the fire services were seen committedly battling with the fire still gushing out from the truck.
At one count, over seven fire services trucks were sighted with more still coming due to the nature and impact of the fire, which if now for that serious commitment, was capable of consuming the entire local airport being that the scene is surrounded by other sensitive sites including an aviation fuel tank farm and the Account Department of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) located directly besides the filling station.
Eyewitnesses accounts told The DEFENDER that Lagos State Fire Service, which is less than one kilometer from the scene, responded in good time but that the truck coming there was blocked by traffic on the road.
While the state truck tried to maneuver, Federal First Service and FAAN Fire Service had been contacted who came on ground and with Lagos State Fire Service gave the raging fire a fierce battle that lives and properties were saved.
By the time the fire, which had reoccurred for about three times after it was thought to have been doused, was eventually put off convincingly at exactly 4.00pm when the Director of Fire Service in the Lagos State Fire Service, who led the team to the joint operation, addressed the press.
As at the time the fire was finally stopped, it became clear that only the dispensing area and point where the truck was discharging were particularly affected.
Because the fire fighters, military and others also ensured fortification of adjoining buildings, the FAAN account department was confirmed not to have been affected by the fire incident.
The FAAN Fire Service personnel were seen on rooftop of the account session, during the risky operation, spraying water on all surrounding buildings and staking their lives in ensuring that no life was lost and spread of disaster did not occur.
It was also clear that the police station beside the filling station was saved just as other offices and sensitive areas surrounding the scene were perfectly secured and saved by the combined effort of the fire services personnel, all of who, including their team leaders, were focused working.
This incident caused heavy traffic within and around the airport, stretching to the popular Agege Motor Road and within the Airport community.
When it became clear that the much threatening fire had been finally stopped, Director of Fire Service Lagos, Mr. Rasaki Musibau, addressed members of the press present.
Musibau said: “The nearest of Lagos State fire services isIkeja, which is a stone throw from where this thing is actually happening involving FO Filling Station. And immediately,immediately, Ikeja Fire Station responded.
“On getting to the scene and they noticed that it is actually a serious fire, we had to turnout Bolade to compliment the effort of Ikeja fire service and on noticing again that two trucks would not be enough, we had to turnout Isolo Fire Service, two fire stations simultaneously were turned out to compliment the effort of the two stations that were on the ground already and we have trucks from Alausa Fire Service which is the headquarters to come and compliment the efforts of the four stations that we drafted to come and fight the fire.
“And, as you can see, when we came we met the fire was actually raging involving a 33,000 litres PMS right inside the filling station and as you can see, we have been able to curtail the fire.
“With the Lagos State Fire Service, we have other responders like the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Fire Service who raced here with their trucks to compliment Lagos State Fire Service. We have LASEMA on ground and we have Federal Fire Service also on ground and we have Air Force, we have Civil Defence, Police, the military men, road safety, and you can see that there is that synergy within all the responders.
“Each time there is fire outbreak of serious nature like this, you see all the agencies coming together to ensure safety and security of lives and properties.
“And as I speak with you, the fire is completely off, is completely fought, no naked fire for now, and I confirm no life involved, no casualty of any sort. The fire is completely put off with the efforts of all the emergency responders on ground. Thank you.”
Cause
“For now we cannot say what the cause. Even at that the fire is off, we are still doing the kind of blanketing the surface of the ground so that there won’t be any… Let me ascertain that yes, for now, the cause of fire is still very much unknown, not until the operation is completed, then we now start looking at what could be the cause and what could be the remedy to forestall further occurrence of such.”
Advice
“The special advice I will give to the populace for now is that, now that we are entering the harmatan season that is known to all of us, it is very, very important that we are very safety conscious. A little spark cause fire outbreak. This is period when materials become dry and a little spark will graduate in a large fire before you know it because of the velocity of the wind and dry materials that we have around us.
“So, let us be conscious of things that we know that when we do will lead into fire emergency that can destroy lives and properties,” he said.
We were first responders – FAAN Fire Service
Also speaking to journalists after the completion of the fire fighting operation, Chief Fire Officer and Head of Operations of FAAN Fire Service, Mr. Makanjuola Temitope, expressed joy and thanked God that the operation, which was mainly to curtail the fire from spreading without causing irredeemable losses to the affected fuel station, was successful.
He said his service, FAAN Fire Service, was the first responder to the incident and that it had brought down the raging fire and under control before other emergency responders met them and continue till the fire was finally quenched.
“There is a control in our service which was called like that of Lagos State Fire Service, Civil Defence, Air Force and LASEMA. So, we were the first responders. We brought the fire down and under control before other emergency services came to assist us,” Makanjuola Temitope said.
