Fire broke out on Wednesday in a building in the palace of Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi.
The administrative officer of Osun State Fire Service Fatai Aremu said the fire affected one room in the building, blaming power surge.
“One of the rooms in the administrative building of the Ooni’s palace was gutted by fire. Our personnel at Ile-Ife Fire Station were called to the incident at 1:20 pm and they responded swiftly to the call and were able to put out the fire,” he said.
Mr Aremu listed some of the properties affected as clothes, upholstery chairs and other home use equipment, adding that the room belongs to one of the chiefs.
Meanwhile, the palace in a statement said the fire incident lasted for about 20 minutes.
“The minor inferno which lasted for about 20 minutes was immediately put out by collective efforts of people in the palace led by the Ooni’s Chief Security, Kolawole Emmanuel, later joined by men of the fire services from the state government, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife.
“Aside from the fact that, there was no causality whatsoever, the fire was just a minor occurrence which was nothing to be compared to the misleading huge pictures being painted in the media, particularly the social media.
“While it is suspected to have emanated from an electric spark, measures are currently in place to reveal the cause of the inferno,” the statement by the palace spokesman Moses Olafare read.
