Dosumu fire: Sanwo-Olu talks tough, orders total shutdown of vicinity

Ibrahim Quadri

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday gave a stern warning to violators of state physical planning laws over the fire disaster that occurred on Dosumu Street, Lagos Island.

The Governor along with some of his cabinet members who went on an assessment tour of the fire incident lamented that preliminary report showed that the inferno was as a result of carelessness.

The fire incident which happened on Monday 8th, had claimed not less than 14 houses as a result of inability of first responders to gain free access to the vicinity due to non-compliance to physical planning laws.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the assessment of the area, Sanwo-Olu expressed disagreement over the unfortunate incident.

Sanwo-Olu said, “We just finished on the spot assessment of the very unfortunate and preventable fire disaster here at Dosunmu Market, as you are all aware, this fire started, day before yesterday, on the 8th and immediately, the first responders were activated and we thought it was something that we can bring within control in the first couple of hours, but unfortunately as you can see, our people has been very extremely reckless and access were denied to first responders for couple of hours, and even 48 hours after, the site is still a live site, we still have isolated burning site and it is still an active disaster site.

“This is a complete disaster, it is extremely very unfortunate, as at the last count, we have about 14 houses in one form or the other that have been affected and a bit more might still go down after the extensive fit-for-purpose test that will be conducted over the couple of days here.”

The Governor expressed dismay over the carelessness and indiscriminate attitude of people towards the environment.

“What I have seen here, is what could have been prevented, we don’t have a full report yet, so I don’t want to speculate, but the initial report that came to us, was just gross carelessness and people not understanding what it means when we say keep your environment safe.”

Sanwo-Olu added that an extensive audit would be carried out to ascertain those who are responsible, saying he would be having tough time with the regulatory agencies.

“And we will conduct a proper extensive audit as into what led to this, but as you see from the initial assessment, we have had an activation of an advocacy that indeed from the month of December and all throughout the month of May, these are high combustible weather that we have known will come year on year.

“We have been advertising on the media that people should know that during the harsh harmattan, the weather is not only hard, that you need to also stay from combustible materials that can activate easy spread of fire and that is a kind of thing that we have seen here today

“We also notice that a lot of residential apartments have been converted into warehouses in people’s sitting rooms and inflammable materials were kept in them.”

Sanwo-Olu therefore stated that the whole vicinity would be shut and that sone of the structures would be brought down.

“I have announced yesterday that the market all around will be closed until when we are able to do full assessment and proper clean up of this entire area.

“I want to say without any iota of doubt that some other buildings are still going to go down, this is totally unacceptable, we will not allow a few people who will not comply with our laws, put the lives of others in danger.

“Physical planning, planning authority, LASBCA are going to be having a difficult time with me, and when they have a difficult time with me, you will know they will come on the streets. This is fire that is happening, too often, too many and it is totally unacceptable.

“People put generators on top of roofs, on the third and fourth floors of building and we have said that this is unacceptable in residential houses, and we have seen the consequences of inaction, we have seen the consequences of us not being responsive and responsible.

“Thankfully no live has been lost, but you can see the amount of properties that have been wasted, you can see the amount of assets, collateral damages that have been wasted.

“So, this is a call to others outside there, that government will not shy away from its responsibility, we will come really hard on structures, properties that will not confirm with our rules, we will bring them down.

“It’s not by force that you have to trade, if you don’t have a conducive environment, go look for something else to do. When you are now destroying people’s properties with your own carelessness, we will not condone it,” the Governor said.

He promised to give support to some of those that have been affected by the disaster, saying “We will try and see how we settle them very quickly and see how we can get them back on their feet.”