Tragedy struck in the early hours of Friday when an inferno, suspected to be from an electric spark, razed two buildings, leaving nothing to save.

Our correspondent reported that the Inferno struck at Adesiyan Street in the Ilupeju axis of Lagos, leaving two buildings on the street (numbers 31 and 32) completely razed, although no life was lost.

Meanwhile, none of the residents and eyewitnesses could state the exact cause of the inferno, except for suspicions that it might have emanated from a spark.

According to an eyewitness who spoke with our correspondent, the fire was suspected to have started from electricity cables in one of the apartments in the affected buildings.

But about 8am, the ugly incident was contained by fire fighters, although the victims lamented that the rescue mission was rather a belated one.

The victims, all in pensive mood, queried that rescue teams like the fire services, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), for not  responding swiftly to their plight even when they were promptly alerted.

Bemoaning the situation, one of the victims, Fisoye Akintaju, said: “The situation is a very pathetic one. Nobody can yet say the exact cause of the disaster but we all suspect that it might have started out from an apartment occupied by some young men who are all bachelors. We can’t even see anyone of them, as we speak.

“You won’t believe that immediately the incident happened, we started calling the fire fighters from Cappa in Oshodi but we couldn’t get a quick response until the one from Anthony arrived. But before they came, the fire had destroyed everything. We couldn’t even save a common pin. People fought for their safety first and I can tell you that the losses are huge. We can’t estimate them. All we have now is what we wore to bed, as you can see.”

For 60-year-old Joshua Arowoshafe, who claimed that he was first to alert neigbours about the fire, said the situation was devastating. All he now has is the pair of shorts he wore to bed.

“We were all asleep when the fire started around 3:30am. We merely heard a noise from the other compound; I immediately woke up everyone and asked them to come out but by then, the fire had gutted the ceiling already. It must have started from a certain flat behind that building. As I speak to you, all I have left is this pair of shorts I wore to bed,” said Arowoshafe.

All efforts to contact the spokesman of LASEMA over the inferno proved abortive, as he could not answer calls put to his mobile phone as at the time of filing this report.