Monday 13 May 2013

Fire Guts Building as Another Collapse in Lagos



By Chiemelie Ezeobi

An inferno Sunday, gutted eight out of 27 apartments of a 3-storey building at Ojodu-Berger, leaving about three persons with varying degrees of injuries. This is just as another building; a three-storey, located at Liverpool Estate, near Ijegun in Ojo area of the state yesterday collapsed after the torrential rainfall. No life was lost however.

The affected burnt building was next to last week Tuesday's collapsed structure belonging to the Four Square Gospel Church and were part of those pegged down to under the integrity test. Confirming the incident, the Spokesperson, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the injured persons were rescued and taken to the hospital for treatment. 



He said, "The occupants had been given quit notice due to complaints of fragility of the  building while the result of integrity test is being awaited.

"Already, the owner of the house is involved in a court case over collection of N60 million from potential tenants but could not give them apartments they had already paid for."

At the estate, Farinloye said emergency workers had initial challenge of carrying out rescue operations because the entire area was water logged.

He said they had a meeting with the residents after the rescue operations and reached an agreement which the residents pledged to imbibe.

According to Farinloye, the residents had promised to stop all construction in the area pending the outcome of an integrity test on the authenticity of the structures, adding that they also  pledged to ensure proper drainages for free flow of water.

He said the Lagos State Building control and Physical Planning would be invited to run the appropriate tests on each building to determine which is inhabitable or not.

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