February 23, (THEWILL) – The Federal Ministry of Finance building in the Central area of Abuja was on Wednesday gutted by fire.
The seven-storey building is adjacent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Secretariat and the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the federation.
Spokesperson of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), Abraham Paul, who confirmed the incident, said the inferno was ignited by a spark at the inverter room.
“There was a spark from the inverter room. They have a room at the basement where they keep the inverter and then there was a spark of no active fire in a sense.
“And because of the significance of the Ministry of Finance to national security, the Comptroller-General deployed men of federal operations to ensure that everything was under control. So no cause for alarm, work has resumed at the ministry,” he said.
Paul explained that as soon as the ministry called for assistance, fire fighters from the the Garki headquarters of the FFS were deployed with back up from Federal Secretariat and Wuse Fire Service Command.
“My men were there in two minutes from the headquarters in Garki and Federal Secretariat and we got a back up from the Wuse Command,” he added.
Also, the spokesperson of the Ministry, Olajide Oshundun said that at about 6:50 am some staff of the Ministry noticed smoke emanating from the room that housed the battery for the inverter.
He said, “Necessary alarm was raised and the internally provided fire fighting equipment were deployed and within about 15 to 20 minutes the fire was put under control.
“Information was also sent to the Federal Fire Service system before they came everything has been brought under control.
“The fire emanated from an exploded battery which then affected other batteries about 10 to 16 batteries were affected. It only affected the battery compartment at the base of the Ministry, it did not affect other parts of the building.”
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