The private residence of the Minister of State of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, located in Asokoro, was razed by fire on Sunday, News About Nigeria reports.
The Acting Director of the FCT Fire Service, Amiola Adebayo, confirmed the incident, revealing that the fire completely razed the first floor of the building.
The fire reportedly started at around 9:45 am, and the Fire Service was alerted shortly after.
Adebayo explained that responders received a running call instead of utilising the emergency line, with the information reaching them around thirteen minutes after 10:00 am.
Upon arrival at the scene, they found the upper floor completely engulfed in flames.
“All of them were on the ground floor. They did not discover the fire on time, and they didn’t call the fire service. It was a running call that came to us. From our findings, they say they called the Federal Fire Service, but they didn’t respond on time; that’s when the running call came to our office,” Adebayo stated.
The Fire Service said it focused on preventing the fire from spreading to the ground floor and adjacent structures.
Fortunately, there were no reported casualties, and no lives were lost in the incident.
As of the time of filing the report, the cause of the fire had not been determined.
Austin Elemue, the media assistant to the minister, also confirmed the incident to Punch.
A running call means that instead of calling the Fire Service’s emergency number, respondents insisted on going to the office to speak with the firefighters.
