
By Ayomide Adegboro and Emmanuel Oladipo
A garbage truck belonging to Jomakleen Nigeria Limited burst into flames while collecting waste on the University of Lagos (UNILAG) main campus. This incident occurred around noon at the Faculty of Education vicinity, near the university’s first gate.
Shortly after the incident, officials from the university’s Security Unit and the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps were present on the scene to avert causalities and further damages.
According to Emmanuel, a student who witnessed the outbreak, the fire started roughly 20 minutes after the truck had parked to load up garbage at a point around the Faculty.
“As the garbage collectors were dragging the waste bins to the truck’s dump, the engines suddenly went up in flames,” Emmanuel added. “Luckily, the driver managed to escape before the fire could cause any serious harm. Drivers in the vehicles behind quickly reversed to avoid getting caught up in the incident.”
Another student who simply identified as Ibraheem narrated how the fire was put out.
“There was some sort of mechanical issues,” he said. “That was what caused the fire. Immediately it started from the engine, people gathered around. I even called Lagos emergency services on 112 but communication wasn’t really worthwhile.”
“It took close to 30 minutes before the firemen on campus arrived and they eventually put out the fire in few minutes,” Ibraheem noted.
The exact cause of the fire remains unknown at the time of writing this report. Both the truck driver and the manager of the waste company present at the scene refused to comment when approached by UNILAG Sun correspondents.
Attempts to reach the university’s Security Unit for a statement also proved abortive.
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