Nigeria: Guinness Plc’s brewery damaged by fire

Property worth millions of naira was lost at the weekend when fire gutted part of Guinness Plc brewery at Unity Garden Estate in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government of Abia State, The Nation Newspaper reported on January 21.

As of January 20, the Abia State Fire Service was yet to give an official statement on the fire. But sources suspect the fire started in a bush behind the factory’s fence.

Efforts by the service to stop the fire were unsuccessful. The fire spread to stacks of wooden pallets and plastic bottle cases on the premises.

The fire-fighters, however, prevented the fire from getting to a nearby pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Head of the Abia State Fire Service Okezie corroborated suspicions the fire started from bushes behind the brewery.

Uche said the damage could have been lesser if inflammable materials, such as crates were kept away from the fence.

He said: “We got the information around 1pm and by then, the fire had become too much. We did our best and when it became wild, I called for a backup from Umuahia.

“The NNPC Aba Depot assisted us with foam chemical compound which helped us to subdue the fire. What they have inside are highly flammable materials and we are doing our best. If you go inside the factory, you’ll see that the housekeeping is very bad. So, I think it might have come from behind their premises and unknown to them, spread rapidly.

“That’s why we are telling people to be careful with burning at this time because fire spreads easily. We also advise companies to practice good housekeeping and make prompt calls when incidents as this start, not when it escalates.

“When we came, I saw them using fire extinguisher on a wildfire like this, how can someone do such? It’s not the right thing to do. They only called us when the fire overpowered them. That’s not how to do things

“The biggest danger today is that the fire was approaching NNPC pipeline, and this made my men place high focus on preventing another disaster.”

Station officer in charge of security at the brewery Eric Otuonye lamented that the fire had brought monumental loss to the company.

He said: “It was around 11am that we noticed smoke from the bushes behind, and before we could get there, the fire was already on the inflammable crates.

“Fire services from Aba and Umuahia have been battling since, with the help of companies around us, such as Clover Paint, Geometric Power and NNPC. We also did our best with the little firefighter we had.

“Since 12 noon to this time (6:15pm), we have been fighting this fire. Many sympathisers came to help but the smoke is too much. If nothing is done, this fire could get worse at night. We are suspecting it came from outside, but our interest is on stopping it. What this fire has consumed is worth almost a billion naira by my own estimation because I know what we have here.

“The company shutdown last July and said they’ll start soon, but we are yet to see them resume, but now we don’t know what’s next.”

A senior policeman from Osisioma Police Division said the police got the information and alerted the fire service.

According to him, the fire service and policemen from Osisioma and Mopol 55 were on duty to provide security and prevent hoodlums from using the opportunity to steal.

20 January, 2019