Fire Scare at Abuja Airport

Written by Duncan Sunday, 18 October 2009

Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, yesterday put the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigerian on red alert following a fire spark at the reception lounge of the domestic wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

The incident which occurred at about 1.40pm saw the  staff and passengers within the building scampering for safety  from the place.

Although regarded as minor, the incident affected only the switch box and the connecting wire in the lounge.  It nonetheless caused commotion and panic among the people in the airport.

However, the airport emergency rescue personnel arrived the scene quickly and threw open all the emergency exit points in the building to enable easy evacuation.

What would have led to a major fire incident at the airport was, however, nipped in the bud with the quick response of the electrical staff of the airport who immediately detected the source of the smoke at one of the switch boxes powering the air conditioning system and turn-off power supply to the building.

The switch box was said to have experienced a power surge  as a result of over-loading from the heavy-duty  air conditioning appliance that  it powers and the resultant discharge burnt the electric cable.  

Speaking on arrival at the airport, Omotoba who had just winded up a closed-door meeting with officials of  FAAN and union representatives over the disputes in the aviation industry, asked the management and staff to ensure round-the-clock supervision and monitoring of the operations at the airport to avoid anything that could threaten the safety and security of the facility.

He commended the airport workers for quickly springing into action to prevent the escalation of the  fire.The Regional Manager of FAAN in-charge of North-Central operation, Mr. Chris Bature who spoke to THISDAY said the organisation is proposing to relocate the domestic wing of the airport to Modules B and D close to the International Wing where there would more space and better facilities.

He said the present building housing the domestic wing was originally constructed as a Cargo Hall meant for Cargo operations and not as a building for normal passenger operations but that it was converted to meet exigencies of the time.

“We are proposing to move the domestic air operations out of the present place to Module B and D near the international wing.  We have presented our proposal to the team of consultants handling the airport expansion project and they are currently looking into the matter.