A fire outbreak occurred at Ecobank headquarters on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday.

A witness, Mr Malachy Okoli said, the fire started when a “diesel tanker exploded near their generator.”

Okoli said, some staff of other commercial banks close to EcoBank, used their fire extinguishers to control the fire before the arrival ofthe Federal Fire Service.

Ganiyu Olayiwola, Deputy Commanding Officer, Lagos Command, Federal Fire Service, said the bank alerted the command at about 8.55am.

“We quickly alerted our people and we were able to contain the fire, the first thing we did was to evacuate all the personnel and secured the area so that we would be able to perform our work effectively,” Olayiwola said.

Mr Femi Giwa, Director of Operations, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), said the agency was alerted at about 8.55am.

 “At about 8.55 am, we got a distress call at the Lagos State command and control centre concerning an inferno within the Ecobank head office.

“We activated our response and mobilised our respondents to the scene of the incident,” Giwa said.

He said, officials of the agency discovered a tanker with 33,000 litres diesel, while trans-loading caught fire.

“We need to appreciate the Lagos State Fire Service, the Federal Fire Service and LASEMA Response Unit, the Ecobank Fire unit, UBA fire unit, Julius Berger and others for their efforts”, said Giwa.

“We were able to contain the inferno within the generator area where they have the tank and the building, as I speak to you, it’s in good condition and the adjourning buildings were not affected.

“Personnel and occupants within the building were evacuated within the muster point. We recorded no injury, no death and as I speak to you, we are at the dampening stage,” Giwa said.

Mr Tunde Dawodu, representative of Ecobank, said the fire started at about 8.40 am, when a tanker that came to supply diesel apparently caught fire.

“Immediately, we activated the emergency protocol and all staff were evacuated from the building even though it did not affect the main building.

“We decided to fight it with fire gadgets that we had and we reached to the fire departments, the state, the federal, LASEMA and some other corporate organisations.

“As you can see it is just the tanker and one of our generators that were affected, it did not affect the building, the personnel or our operations,” Dawodu said.

(NAN)