Enugu State Broadcasting Service Gutted By Fire

The Headquarters of the Enugu State Broadcasting Service, at the Independence Layout near Agric Bank Junction was gutted by fire on Tuesday morning.

Although the cause of the fire was yet to be confirmed, the inferno was said to have totally ruined the newsroom and presenters office.

It was gathered that an HD Cameras and computer laptop of one of the staff was burnt to ashes.

Staff of the station also stated that the fire began shortly after the station was opened for the early morning broadcast around 5.30am to 6.00am when a generator was put on.

According to him, safe for the timely response of the State Fire Service, the entire station would have been ablaze by fire.

A staff said; “Since the station was built in 1983, we have not heard or witnessed fire incident. But less than a month a police detachment was deployed to the station, our store with equipment was gutted by fire. That storehouse had no electricity supply and there was bush around it yet it was gutted by fire. Till today, police were yet to release their investigation report on that incident before this one.

“Shortly after that first incident, the policemen were removed and a new set of people were brought and now it has happened again. I am not saying that those policemen were behind the incident but a thorough investigation should be conducted on this fire incident.”

The General Manager of the station, Chukwuma Ogbonna, lamented that the incident was the second fire incident at the station this year.

Although, he said that the present incident could be attributed to power surge, however, the first incident had remained a puzzle.

“I really thank God that the Fire Service came on time and saved the station otherwise I don’t know what could have happened. The firefighters have put out the fire. It didn’t destroy many things, at least we can go on air.”