It is likely that the fire would have damaged more of the university if not for “the help of some students, who always read at night, who discovered the fire and quickly raised an alarm,” the confidential source said.
A midnight fire outbreak has destroyed the campus radio station at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), in Ondo State, SaharaReporters learned on Monday.
A confidential source with knowledge of the fire told our correspondent by phone that the inferno was the result of an electrical power surge from the radio station’s studios.
This source added that equipment worth millions of Naira was damaged in the inferno, which lasted for several hours before being extinguished.
A section of the Registrar Office was also damaged by the heavy inferno, one FUTA student told SaharaReporters.
It is likely that the fire would have damaged more of the university if not for “the help of some students, who always read at night, who discovered the fire and quickly raised an alarm,” the confidential source said.
“While awaiting the Fire Brigade Service, many students in the vicinity worked to salvage the school from burning down,” the FUTA student source said.
SaharaReporters learned that the radio station, in addition to it being used as an educational tool for students, provided entertainment and community preparedness to the surrounding areas.
A radio management staff told SaharaReporters that the station is an avenue to pass urgent messages across to the university expansive community.
The radio station runs on 93.1 FM and currently off air as a result of the inferno.
The FUTA Acting Dean of Students Affairs, Kayode Alase, who also confirmed the fire outbreak to SaharaReporters, said there was no life was lost as was currently being speculated.
Mr. Alase commended the FUTA students for their gallantry, mostly at facilitating the efforts the fire services in curtailing the outbreak.