For the second time in 11 weeks, Sara Foam Nigeria Limited, a foam-manufacturing outfit in Kirikiri Industrial Estate, Lagos, suffered enormous losses yesterday. The company was razed down by an early afternoon inferno.
The disaster, which wreaked unquantifiable havoc on the company, was the fourth in the last two years, our correspondent gathered.
At about 1.00pm yesterday, a fearful alert went viral within the neighbourhood of Happy Home Avenue, where the company was situated, sending all workers scampering for safety. Many people, out of panic, abandoned their respective duty posts. Scores of panicky workers hurriedly ran outside. Cars parked within the premises of Coscharis Motors and The Sun Publishing Limited, which were close to the burning outfit, were hurriedly driven out to a safe distance.
The inferno, which raged relentlessly, continued to make dreadful sounds as the combustible chemical components used in making foams and biscuits kept exploding at regular intervals.
On August 20, a section of the company’s factory situated along Happy Home Avenue, Kirikiri was razed by a late morning inferno, which destroyed property worth millions of naira. It was the management of The Sun Publishing Limited that quickly mobilised the company’s fire fighting truck to the scene. That singular act saved the company from being totally burnt down.
But the company was not so lucky this time. An on-going construction of the drainage system had caused the removal of the culvert linking Cosharis Street with Happy Home Avenue, thereby preventing The Sun fire-fighting truck from accessing the burning company. Before men of the Lagos State Fire Service could navigate their way to the company, the place had been razed down.
Tears streamed down the cheeks of many people, as the fire raged uncontrollably.
While awaiting the arrival of the fire service officials from Lagos State Fire Service, workers from the Bovas Fire Station in the area as well as fire fighters from the The Sun Publishing Limited prevented the inferno from ravaging nearby companies. Fire service officials from Bovas who identified themselves as Awe and Abiodun said they sighted the fire from a distance and they had to promptly respond. About an hour after the fire had started, two trucks belonging to Lagos State Fire Service Station from Isolo arrived the scene. By then, only little could be salvaged from the ill-fated company.
It was gathered that a spark within the generator room might have caused the inferno. Some others suspected a gas explosion. But they could not explain how the explosion began. A worker, who craved anonymity, said he only heard a loud noise.
“I heard a very loud noise like an explosion which scared everybody from the factory side. By the time I moved out to see, it was already burning, and people were running helter-skelter. Some people had to scale the fence to escape, as the fire had already taken over the main gate,” he added.
An eyewitness, Nelson Igbokwe, who said his company, Bolore African Logistics, rented an office apartment from Sara Foam, said the fire had started from an air conditioning unit at about 12.30pm. Igbokwe, who was furious over what he called the recurrent fire disaster within the company, said his own company had already moved out of the premises, and did not lose property to the disaster. He also affirmed that no human casualty was recorded.
His words: “This is one fire disaster too many in this company. My company, Bolore African Logistics, rented a space from Sara Foam, and our office is just behind. Sara Foam owns this property between two streets, Happy Home and Comfort Obot. I was surprised to see another fire outbreak in this company shortly after the last one that occurred just over two months ago.
“The fire started at about 12.30pm. I was able to know the time because I just walked in from the bank at about 12pm, and then there was no fire. When I came out again to attend to some personal issues, I opened the gate and there was no fire of this magnitude anywhere. By the time I moved in to access my own office behind. I saw somebody, a woman pointing at the air conditioning unit, shouting that fire was in the AC hole. When I saw the lady, I moved closer to her and I saw it too that the fire was burning in the AC unit. At that hour, we all raised the alarm.
“Meanwhile, there was a big truck loaded with some goods ready to leave the company premises. Then, someone quickly moved the truck out of the premises, alongside a few other vehicles that they could move. But one truck got burnt, as you can see, while the other got stuck in the gutter in its bid to manoeuvre out of the premises.”
Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, policemen and a number of other security personnel made their way into the community to help stabilise the crisis. The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, confirmed the incident in a call made to him by a local television station. He said he directed fire trucks to the scene upon learning that it was a foam making industry. He also said if not for the traffic congestion around the Apapa location of the disaster, his men would have arrived earlier.
Many people in Kirikiri expressed worries about the continued fire incidents that had become a regular occurrence at the company. Many sympathisers and neighbours said the regular fire outbreaks at the company posed great risks to the other companies, workers and residents in Kirikiri Industrial Estate.