Seven victims have been confirmed dead following the fire incident at the Afriland Tower in the Lagos Island area of Lagos State on Tuesday.

The victims were said to have died in hospitals across the state, where they had been rushed to after being evacuated from the high-rise building.

PUNCH Metro gathered that doctors are battling to save the lives of the remaining victims in the hospitals.

The incident was one of two separate fire incidents that rocked the Lagos Island Business District on Tuesday, which left several others injured and goods worth millions of naira destroyed.

While the first fire started at the Afriland Tower in Marina, the second gutted Mandilas Market and adjoining plazas along Taiwo Street.

According to multiple videos shared on social media and seen by PUNCH Metro, individuals were seen attempting to jump from the Afriland Tower storey building, while others were rescued with the aid of ladders by residents and passersby.

During this process, some individuals sustained varying degrees of injury before the arrival of firefighters.

The Deputy Controller of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Ogabi Olajide, in a statement on Tuesday, however, stated that 11 persons had been evacuated into the ambulances, while five individuals were successfully resuscitated among them.

The management and staff of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, however, confirmed the death of four staff members in the fire incident.

The deceased staff members were working at one of the two FIRS offices housed on the sixth and seventh floors of the towers when the incident occurred.

The Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS chairman, Dare Adekanmbi, in a statement on Wednesday, identified the affected staff members as Mrs Ekelikhostse George (Assistant Director), Mr David Sunday-Jatto (Assistant Director), Mrs Nkem Onyemelukwe (Senior Manager), and Mr Peter Ifaranmaye (manager).

“It is with a heavy heart that FIRS announces the tragic loss of four of its staff members during the fire incident at Afriland Towers, Broad Street, Lagos, on Tuesday. FIRS is one of the tenants occupying the Towers, with our Medium Tax Audit and Onikan Emerging Tax Office housed on the sixth and seventh floors.

“Our Security and Safety officials quickly mobilised and contacted the fire service as soon as they were alerted. On getting to the scene, thick dark smoke was already billowing out of the building.”

The management offered condolences to the families of the deceased, adding that it was working in collaboration with all relevant agencies in Lagos to get to the root cause of the unfortunate incident.

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Also confirming the development to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday, an official of the Lagos State Government, who preferred anonymity as he was not permitted to speak on the matter, said seven casualties had so far been recorded.

According to the official, the victims died at three separate hospitals – two on Lagos Island and one in the Surulere area of the state.

“I can confirm seven casualties at the hospitals where they were taken to. There are two males and three females that I know of among them. Immediately the victims were rescued, some of them were taken to the General Hospital, Odan; St Nicholas Hospital on Campbell Street, and Avon Hospital, Surulere. Four victims are still being treated in some of the hospitals.”

Some staff members of the UBA branch quartered in the building were also believed to have lost their lives due to the incident.

Although UBA did not confirm the loss as of the time of filing this report, the chairman of Heirs Holdings, of which UBA is a subsidiary, Tony Elumelu, however, mourned some staff members of the company.

In the internal message to the staff on Wednesday, Elumelu described the loss as devastating, noting that no words could capture the magnitude of the tragedy.

He wrote, “Dear Colleagues, I am shattered by yesterday’s devastating incident at the Afriland Towers, which took the lives of our dear colleagues. No words can capture the magnitude of this loss-not for their families who loved them, not for the friends who valued them, and not for those of us who worked beside them. Yesterday was a stark reminder of what truly matters: our irreplaceable people, those who walk through our doors each day and share our mission.”

The billionaire businessman disclosed that he cut short his trip to the United States, where he was headed for the United Nations General Assembly, to return to Lagos as a mark of respect to the deceased colleagues.

While he urged the workers of the company to reach out to those who are receiving care, Elumelu also announced that a memorial would be held in the coming days to honour the departed, while the group continued to provide support to their families.

PUNCH Metro, however, visited the locations on Wednesday, and on getting to the Afriland Tower, the mood was tense but strangely quiet. The tall glass building, usually buzzing with activity, looked empty and bare. Security operatives also stood guard around the premises with their vehicles parked in three different spots as they sealed off the area. Only a few UBA staff members were seen entering the tower as they moved quickly past the barricades set up by security.

An eyewitness who identified himself simply as Abubakar told PUNCH Metro that the fire started at about 1:45pm with thick smoke billowing from one side of the high-rise building.
He said, “The first thing I saw was a thick black smoke from the side of the building. We didn’t actually see fire; what we saw was thick black smoke erupting from underneath the building, close to the transformer area. It was unusual because no visible flames were seen at first, only thick smoke. Everywhere became dark, and people ran for safety.

“Next thing we began to hear people trapped inside shouting for help. Some people even jumped down from the building, though soft foams were thrown on the ground for them to land on,” he added.

A trader, Itunnu Adebisi, who owns a small stall opposite the Tower, explained how she initially mistook the smoke for a generator fault.

“I thought it was a generator smoke until the smoke became thicker. Then, I realised it was from the side of the building. The smoke came from underground, beside the inverter. Inside the banking hall, there was no visible fire,” she explained.

Our correspondents gathered that market owners and passersby improvised to rescue trapped victims before emergency responders arrived. A pregnant woman was also among those rescued.

While accounts of response time varied, PUNCH Metro gathered that the bank’s own emergency unit was first to arrive.

While giving further clarity, a worker in the building who craved anonymity due to the situation said, “It was the UBA fire service bus that came first before the Lagos State Fire Service. People around had already poured water to salvage the situation before the rescue teams came. The Federal Fire Service later joined in. They came about 40 minutes after the fire started. By then, we had already brought out about three or four people on our own. Yet panic from the bank staff members and people in the banking hall worsened the situation, another witness described.”

Business activities, however, quickly resumed around the bank premises on Wednesday, with traders seen operating under the watch of policemen patrolling the area.

Afriland Properties Plc, on Tuesday, in a statement titled “Statement on Fire Incident at Afriland Towers, Lagos Island”, signed by the Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Afriland Properties, Chukwunonso Okafor, confirmed the incident happened at its headquarters.

The company’s confirmation comes on the heels of confusion that trailed the incident, as viral reports initially claimed that the headquarters of the United Bank for Africa had been gutted by fire.