A combined team of fire fighters from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Julius Berger and the Nigerian Federal Fire Service saved the Senate chamber of the National Assembly from being razed by fire.
An eyewitness who spoke with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY said the fire was sparked off by an electrical fault from one of the offices on top of the senate chamber in the White House building.
He said the fault was from the central Air Conditioner in the building which houses both chambers of the National Assembly.
Speaking to newsmen after the fire had been put out, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Fire Service, Oke Biodun Olusegun James, explained that the fire may have been caused by the fire surge which started from the air conditionuing unit.
According to him, “The fire that would have been much was quickly averted. The way the building was built it was difficult to reduce the fire. Some documents were destroyed”.
In his own account of the incident, James said the fire started in a room near the deputy clerk’s because of an electrical fault, adding that but for their prompt intervention, it would have spread to other offices.