Again, fire destroys properties at Christ Embassy Church

Properties worth millions of naira were on Wednesday consumed in an inferno that broke out at Christ Embassy, a popular pentecostal church in Ikeja, Lagos.

The fire incident was the second to be recorded at Nigeria’s headquarters of the church between 2014 and this year. In March 19, 2014, the generator house of the church was gutted by fire during which about 14 diesel powered giant generators belonging to the church were destroyed.

Chris Oyakhilome, a popular television pastor, founds the church. No member of the church was readily available to speak on the fire yesterday, but Rasaq Fadipe, director of Lagos State Fire and Safety Services, confirmed the incident to BusinessDay.

Fadipe informed that the fire, which caused extensive damage, emanated from a refuse that was being burnt, saying the fire spread to four forty-footer containers in which the church stored electrical appliances and other combustible materials that aided the velocity of the fire.

The director informed that his men got a distress call few minutes before 5:30am and immediately deployed two fire trucks from Alausa to the scene.

Fadipe, who warned residents against careless handling of naked fire, however, confirmed that no life was lost in the inferno.