Afriland Towers Inferno: Lagos dispels late rescue claims, reveals true cause of deaths

 By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government has disclosed that the fire outbreak at Afriland Towers, a six-storey commercial building on Broad Street, Lagos Island, which claimed several lives on September 16, was triggered by a spark from inverter batteries located in the basement of the building.

This was revealed on Thursday during a press conference addressed by the Director-General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola, alongside the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, the Director-General of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Mrs. Margaret Adeseye, and the Director of the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), Dr. Wuraola Makinde.

Both Mojola and Adeseye attributed the fatalities not to burns but to smoke inhalation by occupants trying to exit the building during the fire.

Mojola explained that the smoke spread rapidly across all floors of the high-rise.

“At 1:30 p.m., we received a distress call and quickly mobilised. On the ground were LASAMBUS, LASEMA, and the Safety Commission. The Director of Fire went straight into the building to ascertain where the fire was coming from and discovered it was from the basement. It was found that it was caused by the inverter batteries in the basement. The smoke from the fire quickly spread through the basement and went up across all the floors,” he said.

He added that Afriland Towers had functioning safety systems in place.

“The tower had adequate fire rescue equipment, exit points, and an alarm system. The alarm was working at the time of the incident. People panicked, anxious to get out of the building, while inhaling the smoke, which resulted in casualties. No one died from burns caused by the fire,” Mojola explained.

The DG urged owners of high-rise buildings in Lagos to obtain proper certification from the government and assured that the state remains committed to protecting lives and property.

Also speaking, Adeseye said her team arrived at the scene within 20 minutes of receiving the emergency call.

“The response was timely. We received a call at 1:38 p.m. and arrived at the scene at 1:56 p.m. We found that there were sympathisers trying to assist the victims to escape the building. We quickly tried to rescue the occupants. Our preliminary investigation also revealed the cause of the fire to be from the inverter in the basement.

“There were three exits, smoke detectors, and a hose. The alarm was ringing, but the victims were so anxious to get out that some tried to force their way through. They could have escaped through the exits; probably some were waiting for people to come and rescue them. The victims died from smoke inhalation,” she said.