Panic In Abuja As Fire Engulfs Federal Ministry Of Education

“Call back, our secretariat is on fire!” was the response of the Special Assistant to the Minister of Education, Mr. Nnamdi Olebara as reporters from a well known newspaper put a phone call to him on Thursday afternoon. There has been a fire outbreak at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.

There was panic at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, on Thursday following  a fire outbreak that engulfed the 5th floor office of the Ministry of Education. It took the combined efforts of the Federal Fire Service and FCT Fire Service, to put out the fire which reportedly started around 1.45pm and spread to the 6th floor.

No casualty was recorded in the incident, but some files, furniture and other office equipment were destroyed by the fire.

According to the Minister of State for Education, Viola Onwuliri, no sensitive document was burnt and offices in the building were not affected by Thursday’s fire incident at the Federal Secretariat.

The Minister of Education was said to be holding a meeting with principals of Unity Schools across the country when the fire broke out.

The meeting was said to have ended abruptly as the minister, his officials and other participants scampered to safety.

Confirming the incident, the FFS Public Relations Officer, Mr. Collins Elechi, said the fire started on the 5th floor and later spread to the next floor.

Elechi, an Assistant Comptroller, who said the cause of the fire was not immediately known, noted that there was no casualty.

He said, “We cannot ascertain the cause of the fire now until later. It started from the 5th floor and remained between it and the 6th floor.

“As you can see, the fire has been put off, we curtailed it from spreading to adjourning property.”

The FFS spokesman, however, said one of the immediate challenges his men faced was that the building had no hydrant.

“There is a need for a functional hydrant in this building, we could not see one; we are not of course indicting the occupants of this building. That is one of the challenges we met here in the process,’’ he said.

The National Emergency Management Agency  Research and Rescue Officer, Mr. Labaran Haman, said investigation to determine the cause of the fire was ongoing, adding that the rescue teams, including NEMA and fire servicemen, responded swiftly but faced the challenge of crowd control.