At least 10 dead in the high -rise office fire of Lagos

At least ten people were killed and 25 were injured after a fire in a multi -storey building in Lagos, a commercial capital of Nigeria.

In the video on social networks on Tuesday showed passengers of the seven -storey towers of Afriland, which jumped out of the third and fourth floor when the fire started.

The victims were commercial workers who were trapped inside the building, which houses most commercial companies and organizations in the city.

Most of the survivors suffered burns and injuries of destruction, trying to escape, while others had respiratory suffering from smoke.

Authorities say the passengers were disoriented because of the rapid spread of smoke and the lack of accurate evacuation, and desperate passengers broke the windows to jump, which led to a serious injury.

Chukwuemeka Eze, a trader who witnessed the incident, said the BBC: “It was scary, some jumped out of there, many people inside were so afraid to jump that we got a wooden ladder to help them.”

In its statement, the State Emergency Agency Lagos (LASEMA) stated that the fire, which lasted for hours, began in the basement of the building where electrical equipment was installed.

The agency said it suspects that the cause was poor maintenance and insufficient ventilation in the battery inverter, which caused overheating and burning.

The statement added that “there was a lack of mechanical smoke production systems, it allowed smoke to migrate without control. The public address systems did not function, and there were insufficient signage, it made confusion.”

“The building was designed from the sealed windows. The heads of the facility and the buildings also inhaled the smoke and came out from the incident, leaving the head of the incidents and the security chief,” the statement added.

Lasema said he had been a fire in a couple of hours, but a thick black smoke throughout the building.

Nigeria Ball Tinubo, President of Nigeria, called the incident unhappy and committed with the families of the dead victims.

The Nigeria Federal Fire Service said it has launched an investigation into establishing the incident, including the state of security systems, maintenance practice and compliance with fire safety rules. The conclusions will be published and all recommendations will be implemented, the service added.