Scores feared dead as fire guts plaza in popular Balogun Market

Several people were feared dead and others injured when a six storey plaza in the heart of the popular Balogun market in Lagos was gutted by fire on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) reports that the plaza is surrounded by several important businesses which included the Union Bank, Diamond Bank and the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

NAN also observed that the plaza which was being used as a wholesale and retail outlet for shoes and bags is directly beside and attached to Union Bank building.

NAN investigations revealed that the fire started at about 9:00 am and was battled by a team of combined fire fighters from the Union Bank and UBA before the arrival of the Lagos State Fire Service.

Some eye witnesses, who spoke to NAN, said that some people who jumped out from various floors of the burning plaza to escape the fire were carried away dead.

Mallam Hamza Abdullahi, a trader in the market told NAN that he saw three dead bodies and five people who were wounded.

Mrs Florence Adewunmi, a staff of the Lagos State Ambulance Mobile Intensive Care Service (LASAMBUS) stationed at the scene told NAN that some victims had been stabilized and transferred to hospital.

"There are several casualties. We got a distress call at about 10am that there was fire outbreak at Balogun behind UBA.

"We proceeded here and learnt that they have rushed some people to General Hospital, Lagos but we met some casualties on ground.

"The patients jumped from the second, third and fourth floor and had fractures and various degrees of injuries.

"There were those that inhaled too much smoke so we gave some oxygen, some Dyclofenac injection, we treated ankle dislocations, we sutured deep cuts before carrying them to General Hospital, Lagos.

"So far, we have carried six people to hospital and discharged four after treatment," Adewunmi said.

One of shop owners who deals on female shoes, Mr Nonso Christian, told NAN that he came to the plaza at 10am and met it on fire.

"I met the plaza on fire and I tried to go in to bring out my goods but I couldn’t because the fire is too much.

"My shop is on the second floor and I just re-stocked on Monday, I don’t know what to do because the second floor is still on fire," he said.

Several other shop owners, who were wailing while watching the fire declined comment, one of them simply said "we are sad, this hard economy, where do I start from?’’

A security man attached to Union Bank, Mr Umoru Monday told NAN that the fire started a few minutes before the hour of 9:00 am.

"The Union Bank Fire Service came around and started pushing the fire back so that it would not enter the bank, and later the fire fighters from UBA came to assist them before the Lagos State Fire Service came," Monday told NAN.

An official of the Lagos State Fire Service carrying a cylinder on his back into the burning plaza declined comment.

He told NAN that senior officers of the service who could speak to press were attacking the fire on various floors.

"I cannot tell you anything, our fire boss is up in that burning building now and our main aim is to put the fire out. We are attacking it on various floors," he said.

NAN reports that a lone police man battled to keep spectators away while security men of Diamond Bank situated beside Union Bank turned their customers away.