Fire causes panic in University of Ibadan

There was pandemonium on Friday at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State, as smoke billowed out from one of the offices.

Students and workers fled the building while those with cars rushed to the car park to remove them.

The fire was eventually put out by students and staff of the faculty, using fire extinguishers, before the arrival of men of the fire service.

The fire which started around 10 a.m. did not wreak much havoc but some inverters and cables were damaged.

A witness attributed the cause of the fire to a power surge.

“The fire was caused by a power surge when electricity was restored to the faculty. We first noticed flame at the Geographic Information System section. The inverters and some cables were burnt before the staff used fire extinguishers to put it off. We also observed smoke at the control room on the ground floor, underneath the Department of Economics where electrical connections are based, ” he stated.