Firefighter injured, properties worth millions damaged as fire razes NYSC office in Delta

By Unue Emeka,

 

A section of the federal secretariat, Asaba, the Delta State was on Tuesday gutted by fire, leaving one of the firefighters in critical condition as he was said to have fallen from the second floor.

According to PUNCH reports, the fire, which razed down the National Youth Service Corps section of the secretariat around 7 am, caused panic among the workers who scampered for safety.

It was gathered that some of the workers including the NYSC state coordinator were seen trying to sort for some documents as properties worth millions of Naira and files were destroyed.

The State Coordinator NYSC, Mrs Olutayo Samuel said everything in their section was completely destroyed.

 

She said, “What happened this very early morning is very unfortunate. I got a call that our office was on fire and I quickly rushed there, I don’t know how fire gutted the office. Nobody can ascertain exactly the cause of the fire.

“Virtually, everything there got burnt, everything in the office got damage. All the documents bunt to ashes but we have a backup. You know this is the technology age, so everything is in our system.

“Coincidentally, we took some of our systems to the camp and they are still in the camp, so there will be no setback because we have them in the system.

“I cannot cost it now but it is colossal damage. But by the Grace of God, there is no life lost because that is the most important thing. I feel good because whatever damage will be replaced but if life had lost, we couldn’t have replaced it”

One of the staff of the Nigeria fire service, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said the quick response with their state counterpart prevented the fire escalated to other sections.

“We thank God that no loss was lost, but two of our men sustained injuries. One of them is critical because he fell from the second floor in the process of combating the fire.

“We quickly rush him to the Federal Medical Centre FMC, and we have spoken to the MD of the hospital he said they are attending to him. What really happened today is sad.

“Because of our quick response with our state counterpart, the fire could not be escalated to all the building. Only affected the NYSC section. For now, we cannot really say what actually cause the fire, but we assuming it to be an electrical surge.

“The incident started around 7 am. It was the cleaners who usually come early to the offices that saw the smoke and raised alarm. So, immediately our men swung into action because here is our office also,” he narrated.