How the House on the Rock Church Fire which destroyed N3 billion edifice started - eyewitness

The lead pastor of the N3billion worth Abuja House on the Rock church which was razed yesterday by fire, Rev. Kennedy Asigime, has spoken up on the timely but disgraceful appearance of fire fighters at the scene of the fire.

Speaking on the fire incident which he disclosed started at about 2:00pm on Sunday, the cleric noted that none of the church members were involved as they had all gone home.

Lamenting on the loss of the N3billion worth structure an eyewitness said the fire began on the top floor of the church building which is known as ‘Citadel and Towers’.

The building which boasts of a 10,000 person sitting capacity was according to an eyewitness identified as Esther razed with the plastic materials on the top floor of the building melting first in the heat of the fire and giving strenght to it as it consumed other parts including the second floor and pulpit quickly.

Half of the structure located on Airport Road was destroyed before the Nigerian firemen were able to tame the fire.

Speaking on the fire incident, the Head of FCT Fire Service, Garki Station, Mr. Stanley Ujobo, said the cause of the fire is yet unknown.

“We cannot really ascertain the cause of the fire for now until we are done with dumping, which is pouring enough water to prevent resurgence.

“A lot of combustible and very highly inflammable materials were used in partitioning the building. “Before you enter such a burning building, you have to take caution to avert loss of life; that was the reason we were unable to start fighting the fire on arrival.”

He further accussed the church of not putting appropriate safety measures in place as there were no fire hydrants adding that the alarm system installed by the church was not working.

The fire service after deploying no less than eight trucks were able to put out the fire at 5:30p.m.