Ebute Metta, the place where the first Salvation Army Corps (community church) in Nigeria was formed, suffered a major conflagration during the late night of Tuesday, March 9. Fuelled by wood supplies at local sawmills, it is reported to be the country's biggest fire in the past 40 years. There does not appear to have been any loss of life, although there are some reports of injuries.
The fire was apparently caused by a candle placed by some wooden stairs during a power failure in Oyin-gbo, Ebute Metta, a suburb of Lagos. The fire rapidly spread through the plank houses, in which families of as many as 50 live. Estimates of damage vary, but it is reliably reported that some 250 homes have been destroyed, leaving as many as 10,000 people homeless. Many families saw their livelihood go up in flames with their possessions.
The fire was barely out when Colonel Stuart Mungate, territorial commander of The Salvation Army in Nigeria, briefed his staff following morning prayers on Wednesday. Personnel from territorial headquarters together with a member of the Ebute Metta Corps (community church) immediately scoured local shops, buying both bread and water as they made a series of visits to the fire ground. On each trip they took 500 bags of pure water (each bag contains 20 50 cl sachets of good water) and numerous loaves of bread.
'The fire ground was well and truly smoking when we arrived this morning,' reports New Zealander Peter Dawson, serving with The Salvation Army in Nigeria. 'One could feel the heat coming up through the soles of our shoes as we picked our way around the site, which is very big. The fire had occurred in the area that specialises in producing cut timbers so with the amount of wood, wood shavings and saw dust, as well as the sand in the atmosphere from the seasonal Harmattan, the fire must have become unmanageable very quickly indeed. The few block-built buildings were all severely damaged - with no roofs left and all walls collapsed. The place was just piles of ash and roofing sheets that we walked over. Those who were able to sleep last night did so in the open, as there was nowhere for them to go.'
Peter Dawson said that although he had worked with the New Zealand Police and the New Zealand Fire Service he had never seen a fire as big as this one. He felt sad that there were so few services to help the marginalised people who had lost everything in the fire. He went on to say: 'Reactions from the people we spoke to was as one might expect after any critical incident - a mixture of shock at what had happened, anger over what they see as the lack of rights for them and people like them, grief because jobs have disappeared literally in smoke together with homes and belongings. . . But right now I think and pray for the hundreds of people in little groups, all trying to cope with yet another problem in their lives here in Nigeria.'
(A gallery of images of the fire is available at the BBC web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/3498780.stm)
