By Jeff Agbodo, Abakaliki
A mysterious fire has razed property worth hundreds of millions of Naira at Block 5, Centenary City, Ministry of Health, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
The fire destroyed the cold store housing immunisation and solar units which contained vaccines, vaccine carriers, cold chain boxes, laptops, documents, 5 refrigerators, 2 solar refrigerators, 45 solar batteries, and inverters.
Other items destroyed by the fire include hospital beds and foams received from the National Primary Health Care Development Authority (NPHCDA), Abuja, for distribution to MAMII LGAs.
Speaking during the incident at the Commissioner for Health, Dr Moses Ekuma lamented the level of destruction by the fire.
He thanked God that no life was lost and thanked the Commissioner for Power and Energy, the fire officers and the security men who alerted him on time for their prompt response which made the fire not spread to other parts of the building.
According to him, “different vaccines like BCG, Penta, the HPV vaccine, etc. that were all stored in that cold room were burnt.”
Dr Ekuma, who noted that the exact cause of the fire was not known, said that there was no public power supply for about 5 days, stressing that the solar, being the alternative power supply, was not working, which prompted them to invite the EEDC officials to restore the power the previous day.
He announced that a committee has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire disaster and to forestall future occurrences and directed the Director of Administration to allocate new offices to the officers working in the Immunisation Unit.
He maintained that the fire outbreak has caused significant damage to their immunisation operations and that section of the building, pointing out that building professionals would give an accurate report on the extent of the damage.
The Officer In Charge of Operations in Ebonyi State Fire Service, Mr Frank Oka Ota, said that he got a distress call at about 5:18 am and mobilised his men to the place immediately, emphasising that they tried to cut off the place so that it wouldn’t escalate to other parts of the building, as it had already gained ground before they came.
He thanked Governor Nwifuru for procuring two brand-new trucks (appliances) for them, which helped to answer distress calls promptly, and appealed to him to employ more hands to enable them to perform better.
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