Fear gripped workers and patients of a prestigious St. Nicholas Hospital, located at 57 Campbell Street, Lagos Island, on Sunday when fire broke out in a room on the 9th floor of the health institution, causing confusion and displacing over 40 patients on admission.
The fire lasted for over an hour, and was reported to have started from an electrical fault.
The firemen reported that the fire did not spread to the medical wards.
Confirming the fire disaster, the Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, said the fire service was prompt in responding to the fire outbreak even as he expressed relief that no life was lost in the incident.
He said, “We got a distress call around 6.07pm that there was a fire outbreak at the St. Nicholas Hospital and on getting there, we observed that smoke was billowing from a legal office on the 9th floor''
Meanwhile, the fire chief described the use of Personal protective equipment by his men;
''The smoke was so thick that we had to use breathing apparatus to access the place'' he said.
“Fortunately, the hospital had firefighting equipment and water pump outlet so we deployed two trucks from Sari Iganmu and Onikan with 10,000 litres of water. We were able to put out the fire by 7.15pm”.
This calls for routine maintenance of building and the facilities in them including electrical components of buildings.
