Eyewitnesses say they noticed the fire at about 8:15pm behind one of the building that houses the studios and when they tried to help, they were stopped.That night hundreds of youths and fans of the programme swarmed the compound to assist the fire service who they say arrived late. The fire service and Lagos Emergency unit promised they will spend the night to contain the fire.
According to the statement, a recording for WWTBAM had just ended, when crew members noticed a minor fire, late Sunday. But what started as a little ball soon turned
into huge flames as extinguishers failed to contain the fire.Staff and contestants who were housed in the Academy were promptly evacuated. There were no injuries nor lives lost. However, both the studios for WWTBAM and MTN Project Fame West Africa were badly hit and invaluable equipment lost to the inferno.
Ultima CEO, Femi Ayeni, told reporters on the site, Sunday, “although the incident is catastrophic and the loss shattering, we’re grateful to God that no lives were lost. The contestants are safe and we are confident that the show will go on, and in no time at all we will be back on air so keep watching.”
Early visitors to the site included MTN’s GM Consumer Marketing, Kola Oyeyemi. MTN, Nigeria’s largest telecoms company, is the sole sponsor for WWTBAM and the title sponsors for Project Fame. “This is a monumental disaster. We can’t even begin to comprehend the personal, emotional and material loss. But in all we thank God that no lives were lost. MTN is committed to enriching lives through our different services, properties and initiatives and we are already discussing with our partners at Ultima on how to make sure this tragedy does not distract us”.
We also sighted Chairman Ojodu Local Government, Abiodun Faleke who was around to see that the fire service do their job.
The producers say, Ultima is determined to take this incident in its stride and plans are on to return to full and enhanced production of WWTBAM and PFWA.
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