Fire guts banking hall in Lagos

There was pandemonium on Wednesday on Wharf Road, Apapa, Lagos, as the Apapa branch of Ecobank Nigeria Plc went up in flames. PUNCHMetrolearnt that the fire began around 10am as a result of an electrical surge. The management of the bank was said to have evacuated the hall and asked customers to move to a nearby branch for their banking operation. The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, toldPUNCH Metrothat the agency received an alert from the bank and firefighters from the Sari Iganmu division were deployed in the area. He said only the bank was affected as the firemen were able to control the inferno from spreading to surrounding buildings. He said, “Yes, the banking hall of Ecobank was gutted by fire on Wednesday morning. Fire station from the Sari Iganmu division responded with 10,000 litres of water. The fire was put off around afternoon.” When contacted, an official of the bank in the Corporate Communication Department, who did not want to be named, equally confirmed the story. He said, “You know our operations are conducted online, so customers were just asked to move to the nearest location to continue whatever they were doing in the bank. It didn’t affect our service in anyway. “It was just a little fire which started from the roof. I learnt it was started by a spark and the branch manager was able to quickly call on the fire service which responded on time to prevent the fire from wreaking more havoc.”