First Bank of Nigeria Limited’s Head of Corporate Communications and External Relations, Mr Babatunde Lasaki, has confirmed that there was a fire incident at one of the bank’s Lagos branches over the weekend.
He, however, said that the extent of the havoc and the number of valuables destroyed in the inferno cannot yet be confirmed.
According to him, the fire was as a result of a power surge, which caused one of the inverters powering the bank’s Automated Teller Machines to catch fire.
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The Lagos State Fire Service was informed about the development, leading to an immediate intervention to put out the fire before it could cause more damage.
“We discovered that it was one of the inverters in one of the ATM rooms that was affected by a power surge which led to the fire. We immediately called the attention of the fire servicve and the fire was put out.
“It was on a weekend, so the extent of the fire has yet to be confirmed. An evaluation will be carried out to determine the impact of the fire.”
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses around the Oko-Oba area of Lagos where the branch is situated recounted that the fire incident happened on Saturday and that some Automated Teller Machines were destroyed in the process.
Reacting to the development, later on, the Acting Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Mr Rasaki Musibau, said more damage would have been caused, except for the timely intervention of his team; with assistance from the police.
In his words –
“We were invited when the fire started and we responded through our Ikeja fire station. It involved an ATM and we were able to put it under control.”
A bad time for a fire incident
The fire incident is coming around the same time when FirstBank is celebrating its 125th anniversary as a company. As we reported, the official hosting of the ceremonial flag took place on Friday at the company’s Head Office in Marina, Lagos.
The leading bank is a segment of FBN Holdings Plc, which is one of the biggest companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in terms of valuation/market capitalisation.
FBN Holding’s share price is currently trading at N7.65.
