The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has confirmed the fire outbreak at its headquarters on Wednesday morning, saying the fire was caused by exploded battery in the inverter room, located at the basement of the building.
The spokesperson of the Ministry, Olajide Oshundun, said at about 6:50am, some staff of the ministry noticed smoke emanating from the room that housed the battery for the inverter.
He said necessary alarm was raised and the internally provided fire fighting equipment were deployed and within about 15-20 minutes the fire was put under control.
Information was also sent to the Federal Fire Service (FFS) system before they came everything had been brought under control.
“The fire emanated from an exploded battery which then affected other batteries about 10 to 16 batteries were affected. It only affected the battery compartment at the base of the Ministry, it did not affect other parts of the building,” Oshundun said in response to queries on the cause of the fire.
Earliet, a civilian private security guard at the premises of the ministry had said the fire started from the inverter batteries at the basement of the seven-storey building.
Meanwhile, no damage was done to the building beyond the broad stains of the billows of smoke on a part of the building.
