Fire guts Sterling bank in Abeokuta as customers, staff scamper for safety

Scores of customers and staff members of Sterling Bank Plc, Oke-Ilewo Branch located on OPIC Circle in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital on Tuesday scampered for safety as a section of the commercial bank ‎gutted fire, leading to abrupt closure of the banking hall.

Although, the branch manager was not available to speak with BusinessDay when our correspondent visited the scene of the incident yesterday, a staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that the fire incident broke out around noon when the Server/ICT room at the upper section of a storey-building commercial bank caught fire due to electrical malfunction.

He added that the security personnel attached to the bank attempted to put out the fire with the fire‎ extinguishers, but the effort was not enough which prompted the management to involve the State-owned Fire Service that later quenched the fire and prevented the spread of the fire to other part of the building or adjoining buildings around the area.

In the absence of the branch manager, who avoided to speak with some journalists that were on ground at the scene of the incident,

‎Adebambo Adesanya, the Deputy Director,  Ogun State Fire and Safety Service, stepped forward and spoke with the waiting press men.

He said, “We received a call from the bank that there was a fire incident and within few minutes, we arrived the scene to control the situation. By the grace of God, everything is now under control. The fire occurred as a result of power surge, presently I can’t confirm the extent of the damage but after everything we will be able to ascertain that, but only a part of the roof was affected.

“We have to be very careful with our electrical gadgets during this Harmattan period. 90 per cent of the equipment that we use in our offices and homes are purely combustible elements and can ignite anytime there is explosion. We must ensure that we guard against this and get ourselves ready to tackle and avert incidents like this one.”

BusinessDay reports that the fire had been put out as of the time of filing this report and some staff members were seen re-arranging scattered documents and packing burnt rubble, and a squad of Police officers had also been deployed ‎in and around the banking premises to prevent possible hijack of the incident, theft and armed robbery attack.