Fire destroys orphanage in Lagos, seven kids rescued

On Wole Madariola Street in the Aguda neighborhood of Lagos State, a storey structure housing an orphanage home caught fire on Sunday. Seven children were saved.

In a statement released on Monday, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, said that a power surge coming from an air conditioner in the structure was what started the fire.

Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, the Permanent Secretary, stated that the Agency received the distress call regarding the fire incident at approximately 2:43 pm.

The statement partly read, “A one-storey building housing an orphanage/motherless babies home, was engulfed by fire which reportedly started from an air conditioning unit in the house as a result of a power surge which was said to have quickly spread out.

“A total of seven boys with ages ranging between one and seven years were quickly evacuated from the Home and safely relocated to the compound opposite the Home.

“Management Team of the Home informed LRT of plans to relocate the children to the house of the owner of the Home temporarily, to ensure their welfare was sustained.

“The fire which had initially spread to the storage room of the home has been extinguished with dampening down concluded.”

“Post Disaster Assessment revealed that the whole of the first floor was salvaged, while the fire was contained in the store room. The rest of the ground floor was also salvaged.

The head of LASEMA also revealed that the seven children were formally given to the RED CROSS by the Deputy Director, Mr. Balogun, and Mrs. Rasheedat Sadik, both of the Child Protection Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development.

Neither injuries nor casualties were reported in the dangerously close call, he continued. He claimed that the procedure was successfully completed in a speedy manner.