The National Youth Service Corps section of the Federal Secretariat, Asaba, Delta State, was on Tuesday engulfed in flames and one of the firefighters, who came to extinguish the inferno, was left in a critical condition as he was said to have fallen from the second floor.
The fire, which razed down the NYSC section of the secretariat, started around 7am and caused panic among the workers, who ran to safety.
The State Coordinator, NYSC, Mrs Olutayo Samuel, said everything in the section was destroyed.
She said, “What happened this morning (Tuesday) is very unfortunate. I got a call that our office was on fire and I quickly rushed there; I don’t know how the fire gutted the office. Nobody can ascertain what exactly caused the fire.
“Virtually everything there got burnt; everything in the office got damaged. All the documents were burnt to ashes, but we have back-up. You know this is the technology age, so everything is in our system.
“Coincidentally, we took some of our systems to the camp and they are still at the camp; so, there will be no setback, because we have them in the system.
“I cannot put a cost to it now, but it is a colossal damage. But by the grace of God, no life was lost, because that is the most important thing. I feel good because whatever was damaged can be replaced.”