THE FIRE ON 23 ROAD – FESTAC, LAGOS

A fire outbreak occured on 23 Road in Festac on Saturday the 14th, February, 2015 which is the popular Valentine's day. Jouleconcept's correspondent, Mr Juwah Awele covered the story and gave a report in form of an article about the occurrence.
This can be read below:

“There is fire in house 2! There were children locked inside the house…” those were the words of my elderly neighbour, Mrs A, returning from the scene of some ongoing tragedy. Immediately, my mother went for all our official documents she always keeps in a ready to go bag while, my father, brother and I set off in the direction of the blaze. On getting to the front of the close, T Close, we observed the residents of the first few houses on the left hastily withdrawing their belongings from their homes; stuffing generators, plasma TVs, gas cylinders and the works into the back seat of their cars. Some had already driven their cars away! Immediately, we realised the fire was coming from the next close on the left, U Close.

We breached the front gates of the rectagularly shaped T close to meet the growing crowd, restless and frantic, no fire fighters in sight. The fire was ravaging the first three 50ft by 25ft duplexes in the close. The bellows of smoke we could only barely see from our house were now in full sight [Time check: 2pm Saturday, February 14^th, Valentine’s Day]. Amidst the chaos, there was some semblance of organization. The residents of the houses under siege, with the help of the willing, were salvaging whatever they could to ameliorate the pains they were surely already feeling. Kitchen sets, mattresses, electronics and clothes to say the least were sprawled all over the pedestrian walkway beside the houses.

While cars were nonchalantly passing by on the street in front of U close and onlookers were calling to their gods, some brave young men were busy trying to put an end to the burning. Some of these had direct interests in the outcome of this match of man with fire, others, not even a penny to gain. These young men who had climbed the scaffoldings used to support water tanks were fighting back, hacking at the rooftops, removing potential fuel sources that would add to the strength of the flames and pouring all the water they could get their hands on (there had not been light for more than two straight days, there was not much water available). One person in particular lifted a generator filled with gasoline, hurried on top the edge of a 7ft fence and handed the machine to safety. The young men who had succeeded in breaking through the roof at this time met with the consequence of this action. The raging winds swept in, raising the inferno higher, smoke gushed into the streets of U close and the flames were now clearly visible from blocks away.

If you have never been to Festac Town (Festac for short) or you don’t know about the houses in Festac, then let me get you up to speed so you will appreciate the urgency of the situation. In Festac there are several housing unit models: Type-9, Type-8, Type-7, 16 flat blocks, 32 flat blocks and the self-developed houses. T9 or Type-9 is a stand-alone house covering 75 by 50ft. T8 is a 75 by 25ft semi-detached house, sharing only one wall with another T8. T7, the model of the burning houses is a 50 by 25ft model sharing each side wall with another T7, except the first and last houses of every close.

The grape vine was already filled with rumours of how the fire began, the most common of which was, as repeated in pidgin, “I hear say na gas cause am!” The fire had eaten into the core of the buildings, the intense heat could be felt from more than 30ft away (more than three Honda SUVs bumper to bumper), glass began to spontaneously shatter and cracks began to appear on the walls of the houses. Personal effects were still being hauled away, buckets of water were still being hoisted to the brave boys on the scaffolds and even the people too scared to go closer contributed their quota, pelting the burning building with sachet water, from a safe distance.

Stealing myself away from the snare of the crackling fire, I realised I had parted ways with my father and brother. I should say here that I am older than 20 years and I am the youngest member of my family so, no need to worry. Going into U close itself to get a different angle of the situation, I caught up with my father who said he was just fresh from the Fire Service office in Festac but to his dismay, they were not equipped, they had no fire truck! The personnel at the Fire Service office, however, contacted their sister stations at the Ojo, Surulere and Ikeja local governments.

More than an hour after the battle had begun, the cavalry arrived. To my surprise, but not really so because I could empathise, the people turned against the Firemen, blocking the path of their vehicle and chanting them to go away, “Na now them dey come!? After the houses don burn!” the people raved as they were beginning to mobilize against the Fire Fighters. It took the counter action of people like my father, other rationally reasoning individuals, the few police men present and I to sway the crowd to let the men do their job. It was a Lagos state fire truck that had come from some other local government fire station.

The service men came out of their vehicle kitted, set up their equipment and began to spray the fire with foaming water from their truck, the fight was going to the people. The brave young men popular among which was Mr Onyeka, did not relent; they joined hands with the official fighters receiving pointers and warnings from the crowd. While the battle was going on, another fire truck arrived. [Time check: 4pm Saturday, February 14^th, two hours after fire start]. With the help of the second firefighting crew, the match was set. The now large and boisterous crowd was moving back and forth in waves as the wind blew smoke and firefighting foam in their directions. The battle was now finally won but the wordings of what will be the tale of the fire on 23 road was still in its infancy.

Now, time to criticise, allocate blame and proffer solutions. The fire is rumoured to have started from the third house on the line of T7s and there were reportedly three children, all younger than 15, locked inside the house as at the time the fire started. Their mother was said to have locked them inside the house and gone out. Given that there has not been light in the area for more than two days straight (I can testify to that), an electrical fire was easily ruled out. This left to reason that somehow, the children in the third house had started the fire. This can be ruled as negligence of parents leaving their young children locked in the house unsupervised.

Next, it was rumoured that the resident of the second house was met by the brave young men when the fire had just begun and was only in house three, for permission to attempt battling the blaze from said resident’s house. Access was denied. It may be worth mentioning here that the ground floor of house two has been turned to a mini-restaurant. Unfortunately, however, house two was eventually consumed in the fire episode.

Lastly, from the grape vine, it was rumoured that while the fire was still in its early stages, owners of vehicles parked close to the scene rushed over to remove their assets and while doing so, turned deaf ears to pleas to assist with fire extinguishers present in their vehicles.

This is the narrative as viewed through my glasses, facts as seen with my eyes, laced with fresh rumour-wine from the grape vine. I believe this situation could have been prevented if only young children were not left unattended in the first place. I believe the fire would not have destroyed so much if Festac had its own fire truck. I believe a few more caring Nigerians than just the brave young men and even the water pelters would have made a difference.

What is your opinion, what do you believe?

-  Juwah C.Awele