…No fire incident at CBN Head Office, says Spokesman

Pandemonium wrecked the quiet and peaceful environment surrounding the Headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday when a diesel generator malfunctioned and caught fire.

When newsmen got to the Headquarters of the CBN on Central Business District, the generator fire had been put under control by a combined team of CBN In-House fire fighters, the Julius Berger team, and men of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Fire Service (FFS).

The fire was said to have started at about 6pm and lasted for about 30 minutes before it was put out. The huge smoke covered a section of the CBN building up to the roof and left the security guards and other staff on duty worried and confused.

The Assistant Comptroller, FFS, Bello Atayin, said that the fire started at the generator house and attributed the fire incident to a technical fault at the generator house.

According to him, “the fire incident started at the generator house on the west side of the building and we were alerted. It was a minor fire incident and it had been put under control.”

“A huge smoke billowed from a faulty generator number three at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters on Tuesday which caused a fire scare."

Reacting to the incident, CBN’s spokesman, and Ag. Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, described the report of the fire incident as false.

In a statement, CBN Spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, said passersby who saw a pall of exhaust from the generator house far away from the building apparently mistook the exhaust for fire smoke.

“The CBN maintains a total security system that triggers safety alarms in the presence of smoke and so all fire engines and personnel received the alert only to discover that it was an unusual pall of exhaust,” he said.

The affected generator has been rested and normal work has been uninterrupted, while the engineers are working to rectify the issues with the generator. We hereby assure the general public that there has been no fire at our building,” he added. (The Nation)

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