Fire outbreak at CBN headquarters

There was a fire outbreak at the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Abuja on Tuesday evening.

The incident was said to have started around 6:30pm but firefighters brought it under control after 30 minutes.

A source said it was only the generator house that was affected in the outbreak.

The billows of smoke emanating from the building attracted attention but journalists who rushed there were denied access and also prevented from taking pictures.

Firefighters were seen walking out of the premises around 7pm.

Addressing reporters, Bello Attahiru, an official of the federal capital territory fire service, said they responded after a distress call.

He said the fire only damaged a generating set but did not spread to any part of the building because of the prompt response of his men.

In a statement issued after the incident, Isaac Okoroafor, spokesman of the apex bank, dismissed reports that the building was on fire.

“Reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) head office building is on fire are false. Passersby who saw a pall of exhaust from the generator house far away from the building apparently mistook the exhaust for fire smoke,” the statement read.

“The CBN maintains a total security system that triggers safety alarms in the presence of smoke and so all fire engines and personnel received the alert only to discover that it was an unusual pall of exhaust.
“The affected generator has been rested and normal work has been uninterrupted, while the engineers are working to rectify the issues with the generator.

“We hereby assure the general public that there has been no fire at our building.”