A total of 10 people died in the fire at Afriland Tower in the Lagos Island area of Lagos State and new facts of the cause of deaths have emerged.

 

 

 

Emergency officials disclosed that smoke from a burning lithium battery inverter system was responsible for most of the fatalities.

 

 

 

 

Videos from the inicident that occurred on Tuesday, September 16, showed workers attempting to jump from the Afriland Tower storey building as thick black smoke billowed from the building. Some were rescued with the aid of ladders by residents and passersby.

 

 

 

In an update, it was disclosed that 10 individuals – staff members of the Federal Inland Revenue Services and United Capital, a financial and investment services quartered in the tower – di£d at the various hospitals they were taken to.

 

 

 

 

 

Officials involved in the rescue operations, as well as the medical personnel who attended to them at the hospitals, told Punch Metro that most of the deceased victims suffered from complications of the hazardous smoke they inhaled in the building.

 

 

 

An emergency responder, who did not want his name in print noted that the smoke was from the lithium battery powering the inverter.

 

 

 

The Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Afriland Properties, Chukwunonso Okafor, while explaining the likely cause of the incident in a statement on Tuesday, stated that the incident began in the inverter room as smoke spread quickly through the building, including the emergency exits.

 

 

 

The source, who is a senior official, said that the victims who panicked during the incident had inhaled the smoke before help could come.

 

“The occupants of the building had inhaled smoke while they panicked to exit the building. The fire itself was never the threat; it was the lithium battery powering the inverter, which was an alternative source of power that ignited. So, the smoke travelled fast before we got there. Nobody can inhale that kind of smoke for one minute without becoming unconscious.”

 

 

 

 

Another official said the smoke displaced the oxygen in the building, further making it difficult for the occupants to breathe.

 

“The smoke, laden with carbon monoxide, quickly displaced oxygen inside the tower, leaving trapped occupants gasping for breath. Although the flames were extinguished in record time, many of the victims had already suffered critical inhalation injuries.”

 

 

 

The source added that no corpse was recovered at the scene. Rather, the 10 confirmed casualties were said to have succumbed later in hospitals after inhaling the toxic smoke.

 

“Those who inhaled smoke but received timely treatment survived. It was only the severe cases that led

to death,” the source told the publication.