Apartment catches fire near Daily Trust office

An apartment behind Professor Ibrahim Gambari House near the headquarters of Daily Trust newspaper in Utako District of Abuja was yesterday gutted by fire.

The fire incident, which started some minutes before 8 a.m., caused some confusion as both staffs of Gambari House and Daily Trust newspaper were seen running helter-skelter finding ways to put out the fire.

Although the cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained, staff of the Daily Trust battled to reduce the spread of the fire before the arrival of men of the Federal and FCT Fire Services.

A man, suspected to be a worker of one of the firms occupying the apartments, told City & Crime that the fire might be a result of an electric fault.

He said if not for the prompt intervention of the security staff of Daily Trust newspaper, the fire would have escalated to other apartments or the office of the newspaper outfit and caused more damage.

The man, who craved anonymity, because he was not authorised to talk on the issue, said some properties were destroyed by the fire, which he said started from an attached structure at the back of the affected apartment.

City & Crime reports that men of the fire service came some minutes after they were called and they put out the fire few minutes after their arrival.

The Acting Director of the FCT Fire Service, Engr Sanni Saidu, who had earlier directed a fire fighting truck to the scene, said the service had been working to reduce response times to emergencies in the nation’s capital.