By Izunna Okafor, Awka
Awka, the capital city of Anambra State, on Friday, witnessed two destructive fire incidents at different locations in the City.
According to the Anambra State Fire Chief, Engr. Martin Agbili, the first fire outbreak occurred at an MTN Mast site, located at No 69 Dr Billy Okoye Boulevard Street, Agu-Awka.
He revealed that the State Fire Service received a distress call of the fire outbreak at about 12.25pm, and immediately deployed fire truck and gallant firefighters to the scene, who fought, controlled and extinguished the fire.
While noting that the fire destroy generator in the mast site, the Anambra Fire Chief further explained that the fire was caused by a bush burner, as the fire spread from a nearby burning bush into the mast site.
“The generator at the mast site was completely damaged but other equipment at the site were saved.
“The cause of the fire was careless bush burning which spread to the Mast,” he said.
In a similar development, Engr. Agbili said the second fire outbreak occurred at a residential home at the popular Rockland Estate (Ngozika Estate extension), in Awka.
While attributing the cause of the fire to power surge that emanated from one of the master rooms at the Estate, the Fire Chief said they received a distress call about the fire at about 10.57pm, and also deployed deployed firefighter and fire trucks to the fire scene, to battle the fire to a standstill.
He further revealed that the topmost parts of the building was burnt and completely destroyed by the fire, while the Fire Service saved all the ground floor of the building. Engr. Agbili said they left the fire scene at about 1:50am on Saturday, having fought the fire till daybreak.
“Functional fire extinguishers could have saved that building after the owner saw the fire emanate from his room before taking minutes to spread. We later advised them accordingly.
“Time of distress call will always determine the response time. If you call in time, we will definitely locate the fire scene in time to do the needful,” he said.
