BUA Cement has described a fire incident at one of its factories in Sokoto State over the weekend as an “isolated” incident that occurred at a diesel storage tank farm situated in the vicinity of the facility.
This is contained in a statement signed by Sada Suleiman, Asst. Director, Admin Services, on behalf of BUA Cement.
According to the statement, the incident occurred in the course of routine maintenance work on one of the storage tanks by a third-party contractor.
“Immediately the incident occurred, our emergency management and mitigation services were alerted, and a swift response activated, which prevented any escalation of the incident or damage to our main plant and equipment. We are however able to confirm the regrettable loss of 3 workers of the third-party contractor, who were in the immediate area of the incident.
“Whilst we are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire outbreak at the depot which had adequate safety and control mechanisms in place, members of the Federal Fire Service, State Fire Service, and our Fire department are working together to put the incident under total control,” the statement read in part.
BUA Cement said it temporarily shut down operations and production in the factory in the aftermath of the incident as a precautionary and preventive measure but has since resumed the activities since the factory was unaffected by the incident.
“We will keep the public informed through this medium of any new development,” the statement further read.