UNICAL Fire: Fire Service came with moving borehole without hose – Students

By Nsikak Ibatt

On Thursday at about 8:35 PM, fire engulfed the Central Store House of the Students’ Affairs Division, University of Calabar, burning down office equipment worth millions of naira as well as files that contained Students’ documentation.

The students and staff of the institution placed a distress call to the firefighters at about 9:23 PM and they arrived at 10:36 PM when the Post Graduate students, undergraduates, as well as friends of the institution, had tried their best to incubate the fire so it wouldn’t escalate to the offices at the Student Affairs Division, the school stationery/books shop, and the medical centre.

Kingg Sheddie, an erstwhile Mr UNICAL (2018) and King of NorthFest (2019) had to rush to the service station at Mary Slessor which wasn’t functional.

“…I had to pick one of the personnel around their station to EPZ where the Vice Chancellor met us there” – he said.

At EPZ, a whole lot of bureaucratic bottlenecks presented themselves, and even the Joint Task Force comprising of the; Dragon Squad, army, and Navy, arrived at the fire scene before the fire service officials.

These firefighters came and couldn’t use their monitor and hose effectively, one present at the scene would think the Cross River State Fire Service sent students on Industrial Training to arrest such an ugly fire situation.

Their water tank only served as a movable borehole, a borehole that wasn’t meant for drinking but to quench the fire.

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This is the second time in a week the Cross River State Fire Service has proven to be incompetent in discharging her duties.

Recall that on Tuesday, 30 January 2024, at 9:46 PM along Edibe Edibe by Abua in Calabar South, fire-razed buildings and distress calls were put across to the fire firefighters who didn’t show up to rescue the situation.

Meanwhile, no life was lost, students and staff who tried to cease the fire only sustained minor injuries.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Florence Banku Obi gave out N200,000 (two hundred thousand naira) to be shared among students and a few staff that came out to “rescue their university”.

Additionally, she asked the staff and students who sustained injuries to be treated, stating that the school would take care of the expenses incurred.

The Cross River State Fire Service does not just need to respond to distress calls promptly but needs to train its personnel on how to use modern fire fighting equipment effectively.

Attached are pictures of students fetching from the movable borehole that was sent by the Cross River State Fire Service.