BAUCHI: FIRE RAZES STUDENTS LODGE

Residents of V.I.P Lodge, a students' compound located at Gwallameji village of Bauchi State, had a restless afternoon as fire razed some parts of their lodge destroying properties.

The incident which happened at exactly 12:30 pm when some of the residents were out for lectures leaving their rooms and nothing to benefit, was believed to have been caused by an electric shock as witnesses confirmed.

An eyewitness told our reporter that even with the response from the firefighters, still, nothing stops some rooms from being destroyed.

"A friend of mine who was affected by the outbreak had her properties consumed to ashes including her credentials and other important documents."

Narrating the incident, a copper (name unidentified) at the lodge added that he was at home when he noticed smoke coming out from a shop facing outside the lodge, then rushed for support.

"I rushed to get the two shops opened to quench the fire using water and detergent with the help of students passing by before the arrival of the firefighters".

The caretaker of the lodge, Mr. Femi, and the principal of Bodmas Academy narrated that before the firefighters arrived, rushed to the Polytechnic to seek assistance and found that there was no fire vehicle available.

"I rushed down to ATBU for assistance but I was told that dusl was not available as of then. I didn't know what else to do next, I patiently waited outside the school for minutes until the arrival of the state firefighters."

Some students at the scene lamented that although with the high number of students residing around, no single Fire vehicle was provided for emergency response, calling for the school management and authorities concerned to provide a station for anti-fire response within the Polytechnic community.

Reacting to the disaster, the President of the Students Union Government, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi Comrade Naziru Muhammad who was there immediately after the occurrence, shared his grief with the affected victims while calling for authorities' assistance and response to assist the victims of the fire tragedy

 He used the opportunity to call on students to always be cognizant of their electrical appliances and to make sure they switched off their devices when leaving the room with or without electricity and be vigilant, especially with Cooking Gas.

It was reported that a similar incident happened years back at the same location where many rooms were burned down by electricity.