Fire razes company property

The management of Rida National Plastics Company Ltd, Oshodi, Lagos is counting its loses after an early morning fire destroyed its property worth millions of Naira on Sunday.

A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the scene of the fire reports that officials of the Lagos State Fire Service Department battled the fire which started at about 7:00 a.m. for many hours, before finally bringing it under control.

Also, officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the Police battled to manage traffic, security and safety on the Apapa/Oworonshoki expressway, as sympathisers thronged the scene.

An official of the Lagos State Rapid Response Unit who simply identified himself as `Mr Nature’ told NAN that the fire started at about 7: 00 a.m.

“Due to the kind of products being produced at the company, the fire was difficult to handle because of the inflammable nature of their plastic products.

“Officials of the Lagos State Fire Service battled the fire for many hours , trying to ensure that it did not spread to neighbouring companies in the area, as well as the Ikeja Military Cantonment,” he said.

A staff of the company who did not want to be identified, told NAN that the fire started at about 7:00 a.m., from a bush fire.

He explained that the company had a wide expanse of land behind its fence, which is linked to a nearby Army barracks, adding that the bush fire spread into the company’s premises from the barracks.

“The fire started as a result of bush burning from the barracks in Ikeja, behind us. It is just a fence that demarcated our company from them.

“Fire from the burning bush spread into our compound and available company personnel made efforts to put it out but water could not immediately put it of.

“All our machines, including the recycling machine, grinding machine and the blender, were all burnt in the incident,” he told NAN.

NAN observed that the incident caused panic on the ever busy Apapa/Oworonshoki Expressway, but officials of LASTMA made frantic efforts to control traffic on the highway.