Fire Levels Commercial Area of Ebute Metta of Lagos

caption: Fire service official at the scene last night

A wild fire Tuesday evening cut through an entire commercial residence in Ebute Metta, Lagos. The fire, on Market Street, near Oko-Baba Sawmill, started at about 5.10pm and had taken down most of the wooden homes and offices standing in the rural yard before fire service personnel arrived.

Upon arrival, the firemen bravely battled the blaze but the fire had already overcome over 250 structures within the perimeters of the residence.

The origin of the fire was yet to be determined, but some of the affected residents said it may have been a result of petro-chemical reaction to some cooking activities done under one of the roofs.

The burnt community has mostly residential apartments constructed as wooden shacks, but close to half of them were being used as offices by workers on circular machines, photo-framers, wood carvers and turners, among others. The equipment used in those businesses within the community were said to have gone up in the flames.

Occupants say it was not the first fire experience in the community. One of the stakeholders in the commercial area counted today as exactly three years and twenty-eight days since the last fire incident in the area.

Saw mill workshops standing immediately behind the burnt area were not destroyed in the fire, but finished wood works stocked in front of the workshops were.

Fire fighters were still working to quell the fire as of the time of filing this report.