Two adult males have been confirmed dead following a devastating fire outbreak at the Great Nigeria Insurance House Plaza, a multi-storey commercial building located in the Balogun Market area of Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic and commercial hub.
Emergency officials confirmed that the bodies were recovered from the rubble of the building during ongoing search and rescue operations aimed at locating traders and workers believed to be trapped after part of the structure collapsed during the inferno. Okay News reports that recovery efforts are still underway amid fears that more victims may be buried beneath the debris.
The fire incident, which occurred earlier in the week, reportedly began on the fourth floor of the twenty-five-storey building before spreading rapidly to the sixth floor and eventually engulfing other sections of the plaza as well as nearby structures. The intensity of the fire weakened a detached section of the complex, causing it to collapse and trap several people inside.
A senior official of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the government body responsible for disaster response in Lagos State, confirmed the recovery of the bodies on Friday but declined to be named, citing a lack of authorization to speak publicly.
“We recovered two bodies today. The first body was recovered at about 11:03am, while the second was found at about 12:03pm,” the official said.
Visual footage from the scene showed emergency responders carefully retrieving the remains from the rubble and placing them into body bags as part of standard disaster management procedures.
While the identities of the deceased had not been formally confirmed by authorities as of Friday, a trader at Balogun Market, Zacchaeus Afolayan, said one of the victims was a market assistant who had been helping traders evacuate goods before the collapse occurred.
“One of them was identified as one of the boys assisting traders in the market. He was helping traders to move out their goods when the building collapsed on him,” Afolayan said.
Concerns have continued to grow over the possibility that additional traders remain trapped beneath the collapsed portion of the plaza. Among those feared missing is a cloth merchant identified simply as Obum, who is based in China and had returned to Nigeria for seasonal trading.
Afolayan explained that Obum was attempting to retrieve the last of his goods when the weakened structure gave way.
“Obum’s store is behind the plaza. He had already evacuated almost all his goods when the fire was spreading and went back to carry the last ones. That was when the detached part of the plaza, which had been weakened by the fire, collapsed on his store,” he said.
According to Afolayan, Obum managed to make contact from beneath the rubble during the early hours of Thursday, confirming that he was still alive at the time.
“He called me around 2am from under the rubble, and that was when we knew he was still alive. He said he was not the only one trapped there. He was begging us not to allow him die, saying no one would take care of his children. He is based in China and only comes home during festive periods to do business,” Afolayan added.
He further disclosed that Obum, who hails from Umuoji in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria, called again later on Thursday but sounded noticeably weaker during the conversation.
Another trader, who identified himself as Charles, said additional distress calls had been received from beneath the rubble, heightening fears that more lives could be at risk.
“As I speak with you, two people have called from under the rubble. The relatives of one of them just arrived from Onitsha after he called to say he was trapped. Another man also said his brother called him, including one Obum,” he said.
Fire outbreaks have remained a recurring challenge in Lagos Island markets, where densely packed commercial structures, electrical faults, and limited emergency access often result in widespread destruction of goods and loss of lives.
