The mission house of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Oke-Agbara, located at Road 1 Plot 50, Wisdom Estate, Olorunda Aba in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital went up in flames on Friday, destroying properties valued at millions of Naira.
The Oyo State Fire Service while confirming the incident, also said that no life was lost to the fire incident which occurred at the time worshippers were preparing for Friday vigil.
General Manager of the state’s Fire Service, Akindele Akinyinka who confirmed the incident on Saturday, said a distress call was received by the Service at exactly 9:50pm on Friday, after which a crew was immediately deployed to the scene of the inferno.
On arrival at the church, Akinyinka said the church’s adjourning mission house was already up in flames.
“We quickly swung into action and restricted the fire from spreading to the main church building where the Carol was going on during the fire incident.
“The mission house was affected by fire and we were able to save the main church building and other nearby buildings.
“No life was lost, property worth million of naira was lost and we were able to save properties worth billions of naira,” Akinyinka said.
He added that investigation was ongoing to unravel the cause of the incident, but narrated an eyewitness’ account that the incident occurred during the yearly Christmas Carol programme.
The eyewitness said the fire incident occurred at the mission house where children were playing.
“It was likely that the children were playing with open fire unattended to”, he added.
Meanwhile, a member of the church, Evangelist Ayobami Adeleke revealed that his entire family’s educational certificates and other valuables were lost to the inferno.
Adeleke added that the only belongings left to him and his family were the clothes they were wearing at the time.
According to Adeleke, the affected area was the children’s church, which also housed apartments for other ministers.
He lamented, “As you see me, this is the last cloth I am wearing. My certificate and that of my wife, daughter, and other valuables have been lost to this fire.
“As I speak, we don’t have anywhere to stay.”
He commended the swift intervention of church members and the state fire service who arrived eventually to extinguish the flames.
