Scores feared dead as fire guts plaza in popular Balogun Market in Lagos

Several people were feared dead and others injured when a six storey plaza in the heart of the popular Balogun Market in Lagos State was gutted by fire on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigerian reports that the plaza is surrounded by several important businesses, which include Union Bank, Diamond Bank and the United Bank for Africa.



NAN also observed that the plaza, which was being used as a wholesale and retail outlet for shoes and bags, is directly beside and attached to the Union Bank building.
NAN investigations revealed that the fire started at about 9am and was battled by a team of combined fire fighters from the Union Bank and UBA before the arrival of the Lagos State Fire Service.
Some eyewitnesses, who spoke to NAN, said some people who jumped out from various floors of the burning plaza to escape the fire were carried away dead.


Mallam Hamza Abdullahi, a trader in the market, told NAN that he saw three dead bodies and five people who were wounded.
Abdullahi said: “People were shouting and jumping down from upstairs.
“I saw a woman dead with her skull open.”
Florence Adewunmi, a staff of the Lagos State Ambulance Mobile Intensive Care Service, stationed at the scene, told NAN that some victims had been stabilized and transferred to hospital.