Fire Destroys Drugs, Vaccines, Property At Ebonyi Health Ministry

A fire has gutted the cold store of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Health, destroying vaccines and critical medical equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Friday at Block 5, Centenary City, Abakaliki, significantly impacting the state’s immunisation infrastructure.

Speaking during an on-the-spot assessment of the damage, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Moses Ekuma, lamented the scale of the loss, noting that the facility housed vital immunisation materials and solar-powered units used for vaccine preservation.

Items destroyed in the fire include vaccines, vaccine carriers, cold-chain boxes, laptops, official documents, five refrigerators, two solar-powered refrigerators, and 45 solar batteries and inverters.

CHANNELS TV reports that also affected were hospital beds and mattresses supplied by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which were scheduled for distribution to Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Intervention (MAMII) local government areas in the coming week.

Ekuma, however, expressed relief that no lives were lost in the incident. He commended officials of the State Ministry of Power and Energy, fire service personnel, and security agencies for their prompt response, which helped prevent the fire from spreading to other parts of the building.

“Vaccines such as BCG, pentavalent, and HPV, among others, stored in the cold room, were completely destroyed,” he said.