By O.V.Collins
It was a fiery battle at the department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Benin as fire razed some offices on Friday.
The incident which started at around 8pm caught the attention of individuals, who immediately raised an alarm and called for help.
Sources say that the fire started as a result of high voltage which caused an Air conditioner that was left powered on in Office/Room 304, to explode, setting the office ablaze.
Power supply was restored to the University of Benin after a 3-day outage caused by a fire incident at Ihovbor TCN substation, Edo state. The impact of the high voltage when the power was restored caused an Air Conditioner to spark and explode, creating the combustion that sparked the inferno at the Faculty of Arts.
ACJ-UNIBEN, at the scene of the event gathered that the UNIBEN fire service was contacted at 8:24pm and they sprung into action immediately. By the time the Fire service got to the scene, UNIBEN Security Officers were already trying to put the fire out but it overpowered their efforts and escalated quickly, spreading to the neighbouring office, Room 303.
The commendable combined efforts of the UNIBEN Security and the UNIBEN Fire service subdued the fire and they put it under control.
The building burnt for about 2-hours before it was finally put out. The fire service initially experienced difficulty in penetrating water into the building from the outside as the windows were shut and the fire destructively consumed it. A breakthrough happened when one of the men bravely entered the burning rooms and jerked the windows open. This created a path for water to enter the building and for smoke to get out.
Present at the scene was the UNIBEN Chief Security Officer , Chief of Crime Mr Obanor, Chief Engineer of UNIBEN Fire Service, UNIBEN Security Officers, Passers-by, an ACJ-UNIBEN Reporter and several others who collectively assisted to put out the fire.
After 2 hours, the fire was put out and the fire service left the scene, while some security men waited around to observe the situation.