Fire razes 50 makeshift houses in Lagos
2013-01-09 12:52
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Nigeria
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Lagos - A fire has ripped through a slum in Nigeria's
largest city, razing at least 50 makeshift houses and several sawmills in the
second major blaze in recent weeks, an emergency official said on Wednesday.
No one was reported killed or injured in the fire in Lagos
on Tuesday evening, though at least 60
families have been displaced.
"Some 50 houses built with [wooden] planks and several
sawmills burnt in the Okobaba area of Ebute-Meta," Ibrahim Farinloye of
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told AFP.
He said "an electric spark" from Nigeria's poorly
maintained public power supply system was believed to have caused the blaze
which lasted for two hours before it could be put out.
"Nobody was either killed or injured, but many people
have been rendered homeless following the incident," he said.
"We have some 60 families that have been displaced and
NEMA is trying to assist them with relief materials."
The blaze came just two weeks after an explosion of a
warehouse storing fireworks and resulting fire destroyed 10 buildings, left one
person dead and injured 40 others in the city.
Lagos is considered Africa's second-largest city after
Cairo, with some 15 million people. Fires are common in Nigeria during the dry
season.
- SAPA
