A section of the Jos Territorial Headquar-ters of Nigerian Telecommu-nications Limited (NITEL) was on Friday gutted by fire destroying some vital offices and cables worth several millions of naira. Some workers said the losses could be in the region of N30 billion.
A fire set by a gardener to burn grasses after cleaning the premises was said to have spread to some cables within the premises before extending to the 15_room block a block housing the customer service center, part of the accounts section and facility store.
Workers who were in their offices were said to have been attracted by the huge ball of fire from the burning cables within the premises which aided by wind, spread rapidly to the building.
Officers of the state fire service battled hard to prevent the fire which started around 11.am from spreading to other parts of the headquarters and the adjoining buildings. It, however, took the three trucks over three hours to put out the fire.
The Territorial Manager, Engr. Bulus DanBauchi said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained while he could not estimate the extent of damage until a proper assessment was done.
However, some of the workers who spoke to journalists said the gardener who worked in the premises in the morning left after setting the grass on fire adding that wind must have blown the fire to the nearby cables.
Director of the Fire Service in the state, Mr. Michael Dung who was also at the scene blamed the fire on bush burning confirming that it spread to the building from burning grass within the premises.
The fire created panic as business owners and schools around closed hurriedly for fear of it spreading to their buildings.
The Commander of the Special Task Force (STF) Brig. Gen. Hassan Umaru led his men to see what was happening and provided security to prevent hoodlums from capitalizing on the situation to loot
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Posted: at 18-03-2011 09:51 PM (13 years ago) | Addicted Hero
very funny , the useless gardener that starts the fire must have been used, how can he sets the place ablaize and left ? let the authority hold him very well , he has alot of things hidding in him
Posted: at 19-03-2011 05:23 PM (13 years ago) | Grande Master
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