Yaba Tech fire incident: Could it have been averted?

by Usman Alabi

The Bakassi student hostel in Yaba College of Technology in Lagos was gutted by fire in the early hours of today. Although there was no casualty, most of the affected students claimed they were not able to salvage any of their belongings. The fire which, according to the students started around 5 am from the top floor, gutted half of that floor and the second floor.

One of the students who spoke to YNaija said “The fire started 5 am today in the last floor, we just started seeing smoke and before we know it there was pandemonium, I did not even put on any cloth, I just ran out.  Many of us ran out naked, it was the guys around that gave us their cloths to put on”.

Another student who shared her experience told us that “I lost everything including my phone, as you can see. We started perceiving smoke, and before we know it, fire was everywhere, I could not take anything; I know a final year student who lost her laptop which contained her finished project, the girl is destabilized, she is in Mechanical department, it is just not funny. Immediately the fire started, some guys were trying to get in to see what they can salvage, but the porters had to stop them on the excuse that it could lead to theft. Eventually, everything got burnt”.

There are conflicting reports regarding the exact cause of the fire. Some of the students claimed that it was as a result of a faulty switch box in the female hostel while majority of the students claimed that the fire started when the hostel generator was put on. The students lamented the slow response of the fire service men.  “Immediately the fire started,  one of the students said, Yaba Tech Fire Service Unit came but they claimed they had no water, and rather than make provision for water, they started taking pictures and videos of the burning hostel. It was then that the UNILAG Fire Service came, but they were not able to contain the fire. The fire actually started from one part of the hostel, so if there had been quick and immediate response, this loss would have been averted. In fact it was some of the guys that were pouring water to put out the fire.”

Another student said, “we even called the Lagos State Fire Service. They told us that there is nothing they can do unless, they are being invited by the school authority. The situation could have been averted if there was an immediate response.  We did not have light, but around 5 am today, I think they were trying to put on the generator, and there was a spark and before you know it, the fire started. All the cables in our hostel are old, our sockets are not working.  In fact in my room we have about six sockets but only two work and students from other rooms normally come to share them with us. This is not the first time we would be having this spark whenever the light comes up, but there was never a time anything was done to address the situation”.

 

“We don’t have water in the hostel”, one of the students in the hostel claimed, “There is no water in the hostel, a Federal school! Every day, we come down from the last floor with our buckets to queue for water; we don’t have water in the hostel, so it was difficult getting water to put out the fire even when the Yaba Tech fire service came”.

As at 9 am this morning, the Lagos state Fire Service were still trying to put out the fire. YNaija learnt that some of the students were supposed to have their exams this morning, but the school authority has suspended academic activity for one week to address the situation. Although some of the students affected by the fire were being addressed by representatives of the school this morning and told to write down their names, there is no indication as to whether the school intends to compensate them for their loss.

The state of the hostel is nothing to write home about, and it is nothing but a reality of our education system in the country. Most of the students agreed that the fire would have been averted or put out if the necessary infrastructure had been in place. A hostel this old has no emergency infrastructure to cater for a situation such as this. The students said they don’t even have a fire extinguisher, or an inbuilt fire response facility in the hostel; all the hostels are crammed. The students claimed that the Bakasi hall gutted by the fire had about four to five exits, but only two are opened to the students. There are also no emergency exit doors. According to the students that spoke with YNaija, the two exits are for the different floors. The main entrance is for those on the ground floor while the next exit by the side is for those on the upper floor, with very small corridor, so it became difficult for them to exit the building leading to more chaos, and it was also difficult for those outside to lend some assistance. Although no student died in the incident, there are reports of those who fainted as a result of the smoke, those who got wounded in the process of attempting to exit the building and those whose health complications such as asthma was aggravated as a result of the smoke.

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