by crossriverwatch admin
An official of Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar has disclosed to CrossRiverWatch that this evening’s fire outbreak may have cost the prestigious hotel over 300 million Naira in damages.
The official said the four power generating plants worth over 300 million naira in the power house of the Hotel were completely razed in an inferno.
The fire which started at about 4pm was said to have been ignited when the machine used in transferring diesel from the storage tank to one of the generating plants caught fire during preparations for the Valentine Dinner Night being hosted by the hotel for lovers and guests in the hotel.
The official of the hotel who said he was not authorized to speak to the press told CrossRiverWatch that the staff of the electrical department of the hotel were filling diesel into one of the pilot generating sets “when the machine used in taking diesel from the storage tank caught fire and this spread rapidly to the power generating house forcing the staff to leave the place”.
The official said an estimated 300 million naira may have been lost to the inferno. “Each of those generating sets cost over 80 million naira and the house is also in the neighborhood of twenty million so if you put the entire amount together, it is in excess of 300 million naira”.
An official of the Federal Airport Rescue and Fire Service, Eno Ikpi Otu said the fire caused much damage because it took the truck deployed from Margaret Ekpo International Airport a long time to arrive the scene to combat the fire because “the road was clogged by motorists who were not willing to clear the road even when they saw that we were rushing to salvage a situation”.
Mr Ikpi said though no life was lost in the inferno enormous damage was done to the generator house and the generating plants which were completely razed. “We would have brought the fire under control before the damage done was much but because people were not ready to allow us pass, we got here a little too late”.
An Akwa Ibom Mass Transit bus that was coming from Uyo to Calabar and arrived the place at the peak of the fire was lifted off the road by the impact of the explosion from one of the generating plants; causing it to crash into the drainage by the side of the road.
Mr Rekpene Bassey, the Cross River State Security Adviser who was at the scene of the incident said the fire outbreak was unfortunate on a day the hotel and the state had made so much preparation for the Valentine Night Dinner to be hosted in the hotel. “The fire outbreak on a day like this is unfortunate considering the preparations made by the hotel and our state for the Valentine’s Day Dinner in the Hotel; many guests have come from far and wide to fete their loved ones here”.
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