Guardian

AN early morning inferno Wednesday razed a section of the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.

For over three hours, fire fighters battled spiritedly to put out the fire.

At the end of the inferno, 21 rooms and four apartments were completely razed with no valuable assets recoverable in the inferno. It was learnt that the inferno was caused by electrical surge in one of the rooms affected in the fire incident.

Aside some apartments with artefacts gutted by the inferno, three apartments belonging to three of royal father’s wives were among the 21 rooms affected.

Though no life was lost and nobody sustained injuries, the wives lost virtually all their valuables in the fire disaster. Each of the apartments of the queens contained about five rooms.

The Media Assistant to Alaafin, Alhaji Azeez Fehintola, who spoke with reporters on the development described the incident as sad.

He said, “the extent of damage by the fire goes beyond my imagination. Immediately I got to the palace and saw the extent of the damage done to the palace by the early morning inferno, I could not but break down into tears.

“The fire-fighters came at some minutes past seven and battled it till it was finally put out. Every part of the affected apartments was completely razed. It was a really sad day for the royal wives because many of their property were destroyed.