Fire guts Gombe medical store, destroys equipment

By Ibrahim Umar
Kanempress News
20th February 2024

Reports gathered by Kanempress say a block of the Ministry of Health’s medical stores in NorthEast Gombe State was razed by an early morning fire on Monday, resulting in destruction of medical equipment, consumables, drugs and injections.

According to the Gombe state Commissioner for Health, Dr Habu Dahiru, the fire started at about 2am.

“The staff on duty quickly informed officials in charge of the stores, who equally alerted firemen for emergency response, but before the firemen could reach the stores, the inferno had done major damage on the store, resulting into the collapse of the eastern wall of the block,” Dahiru said.

The commissioner said investigations are ongoing to know the cause of the fire and the level of damage.

Dahiru said that despite the loss of drugs meant for the forthcoming March immunisation against child killer diseases, the Gombe state government would not relent in its effort to ensure the success of the exercise.

He said that the ministry would immediately reach out to the Federal Government, donor agencies and organisations to bridge the gap created by the inferno.

“The cost implication is about N5bn. If you see the naira exchange rate now, you can imagine how much is one dollar of polio MOPV for that matter, that is the most potent polio vaccine. It is very costly if you covert it from dollar to naira. The same as the equipment too,” Dahiru said.

“This is just a rough estimate, as a committee has been instituted to take an inventory and itemise them. It is not only that, I have also instructed the fire service department to give us a report on the immediate cause of the incident and what measures to prevent further occurrence,” the state Commissioner of health said.

Similarly , the Operations Officer, Fire Service, Gombe State, Umar Faruk, said a distress call was received by eight minutes past three in the morning, and immediately mobilised the men to the scene.

Faruk said the firemen successfully contained the fire from further spreading to other blocks.

Suspecting electrical surge for the inferno, he said, “The service will soon brief the press upon completion of investigation.”

Faruk charged the Ministries, Departments and Agencies to train their staff on how best to use fire extinguishers in case of emergencies.