There was a fire outbreak at the Film House Cinema in Apapa Shopping Mall, Apapa area of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.
Lifestyle Nigeria reports that normal activities were ongoing in the mall when customers and workers started perceiving the smell of burning substances on Friday.
According to reports, emergency workers alongside curious customers in the mall traced the smell of the burning substances to the cinema that had been abandoned for a while.
Upon the discovery, a temporary shutdown of business operations in the mall was ordered as customers and workers in the mall were told to vacate the building.
The Director of Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, who confirmed the incident, said it took a long time for people to discover that fire was burning in the cinema because it was abandoned.
She also noted that there was no causality recorded in the incident.
She said, “The Film House Cinema is not in use. By the time we were alerted and got to the place, we realised that the fire had burnt for quite some time. Almost every abandoned material in there was already burnt to ashes. The mall is a one-storey building and the film house is housed at the upper floor of the one-storey building.”
On the cause of the fire, Adeseye said the cinema could still have electrical current supplied in its premises, adding no one was using the power supply as the place had been abandoned for some time.
Adeseye said, “We are still trying to unravel the possible cause. We got the fire alert around 11.50am and the fire was extinguished around 2pm. No life or injury was recorded.”