The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), on Monday, said it rescued seven motherless children in a domestic fire that engulfed an orphanage on Sunday afternoon in the Aguda area of the state.
In a statement by its Public Affairs Unit Head, Mr. Nosa Okunbor, the agency said that seven male children, aged between one and seven, were rescued by the LASEMA Response Unit.
The Permanent Secretary, of LASEMA, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu said: “A one-storey building, housing an orphanage/motherless babies home, was engulfed by fire, which reportedly started from an air conditioning unit in the house as a result of a power surge, which was said to have quickly spread out.
“A total of seven boys, with ages ranging between one and seven years, were quickly evacuated from the home and safely relocated to the compound opposite the home.
“The management team of the home informed LRT of plans to relocate the children to the house of the owner of the home temporarily, to ensure their welfare was sustained.
“The fire, which had initially spread to the storage room of the home, has been extinguished with dampening down concluded”.
Oke-Osanyintolu added that post-disaster assessment revealed that the whole of the first floor was salvaged, while the fire was contained in the store room and the rest of the ground floor was also salvaged.
“The children were formally handed over to the Deputy Director, Mr Balogun and Mrs Rasheedat Sadik, both of the Child Protection Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, who then formally handed the seven children over to the Red Cross”, he said, adding that no injuries or casualties were recorded in the incident.
