Fire guts building in Ooni’s palace

 

A building inside the Ile Oodua ’s Palace of Ooni of Ife was on Wednesday gutted by fire , causing panic in the ancient city .

Administrative Officer of Osun State Fire Service , Fatai Aremu , confirmed the incident .

Aremu explained that the fire affected just one room in the said building .

He , however, described the effect as severe and blamed the development on a power surge .

He said , “ One of the rooms in the administrative building of the Ooni ’s palace was gutted by fire . Our personnel at Ile- Ife Fire Station were called to the incident at 1 : 20 pm and they responded swiftly to the call and were able to put out the fire .

“ The fire was caused by a power surge . Though the fire affected a room, the effect was severe as it blew off the roof of that room . It would have spread beyond that, but due to prompt arrival of fire personnel .

Property affected are; clothes , upholstery chairs , and other home use equipment as the room belongs to one of the chiefs . OAU Fire personnel and OAUTHC personnel assisted. Property saved worth N 10 billion naira while estimated loss worth N 1 million . ”

Meanwhile, the Palace of Ooni of Ife , Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said the incident was a minor inferno which lasted for about 20 minutes .

A statement by Moses Olafare, the Director of Media and Public Affairs, Ooni ’s Palace, said , “ The minor inferno which lasted for about 20 minutes was immediately put out by collective efforts of people in the palace led by the Ooni ’s Chief Security , Kolawole Emmanuel , later joined by men of the fire services from the state government , Obafemi Awolowo University , Ile - Ife and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital , Ile -Ife .

“ Aside from the fact that , there was no causality whatsoever , the fire was just a minor occurrence which was nothing to be compared to the misleading huge pictures being painted in the media , particularly the social media .

“ While it is suspected to have emanated from an electric spark, measures are currently in place to reveal the cause of the inferno.”