Angry Residents Attack Firefighters In Osun Over Delayed Response

Some angry residents reportedly attacked firefighters from the Osun State Federal Fire Service in Osogbo over claims they arrived too late to respond to a car fire.

It was gathered that the incident happened on Thursday around the Old Garage area, near MDS Road, where a vehicle caught fire.

Panic broke out as people scrambled for fire extinguishers and water in a desperate attempt to put out the flames.

Tensions flared when the Federal Fire Service team finally arrived, only to be met with hostility from some residents.

Eyewitnesses said the crowd hurled objects at the firefighters and warned them not to stop, claiming the fire had already been mostly handled by then.

Femi Akinjobi, the State Controller of the Federal Fire Service in Osun, expressed frustration over the attack on his team.

According to him, the delay was due to traffic congestion, and they were not directly contacted by residents. Instead, a state fire service official had alerted them.

“We got information from the State Fire Service and immediately, we moved to the scene. We ran into a gridlock on the road.

The people concerned did not call us. It was an official of the state Fire Service who called my men. I followed my men with my private vehicle.

“Immediately we got there, the hoodlums started throwing stones at my men. My men quickly left the scene. They could not work there. There was no damage to our appliances.

“Police operatives were at the scene and they could not do anything. That was the most painful part,” Akinjobi said.

But responding to the allegations, the spokesperson, Osun Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, gave a different version of events.

Ojelabi stated that police officers on site helped calm things down and denied that the firefighters were physically attacked.

He also confirmed that both the state and federal fire services were contacted, but there were delays from both ends.

“The vehicle caught fire. We don’t know how it happened and the police responded immediately by calling the fire service. The fire service was delayed in coming. We have both state and federal fire services. So, the fire service they called is the state fire service but they gave excuses.

“The Federal Fire Service men were on their way, even people who witnessed the incident were already angry that they called the fire service, but no quick response. So, when people saw the Federal Fire Service, not that they were attacked, but people shouted at them.

“That made them leave the scene. If they had remained there, something else might have happened. So, they did not even stop to put out the fire, for people not to start attacking them.

“As at that point when they came, the fire had already been put out, though not completely,” Ojelabi said.

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