Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has confirmed that the fire which engulfed the Old Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos destroyed critical equipment belonging to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency that was housed within the facility.

Keyamo stated that the incident would accelerate the already planned reconstruction of the terminal.

He disclosed that four persons who sustained injuries in the blaze were in stable condition and responding well to treatment.

The fire broke out at about noon on the previous day, resulting in injuries to six individuals and forcing the diversion of three international flights.

On Tuesday, the Minister conducted an on-site assessment of the damaged terminal together with other senior aviation officials and journalists.

Observations at the scene showed that several airline check-in counters had been completely burnt, while significant portions of the ceiling suffered severe damage.

Parts of the terminal were charred, with prominent smoke stains visible on walls and debris littering the floor.

Addressing journalists after the tour, the Minister provided details on the impact and next steps.

“It is the terminal that we are about to pull down. Even though we are trying to pull down this old terminal, there was certain equipment that we also needed to retrieve.

“Certain persons also needed to leave the old building for us to start work there. However, let me assure Nigerians that even before this fire, if you look behind, we had already made a temporary arrangement to move most of the airlines, most of the entities in that space to the temporary place provided by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCEC. What this has just done is to hasten our move away from the building.

“The building was about to be pulled down anyway and totally rehabilitated. However, a lot of our equipment was damaged. For example, our NiMET equipment, our NiMET office where they read the weather is totally gone. I am sure you saw most of the air traffic controllers who were trapped up there yesterday too.

“Many of them had to be rescued by crane. So, some of our equipment is damaged. It will hasten our process of reconstruction. They are on site already. They are reconstructing the new bridge to the new terminal. They are on site. The CCECC is on site already. We are just waiting for people to evacuate.

“So, this fire actually hastens our movement away from the place. We have made temporary arrangements for air traffic control. For now, they are using a temporary tower. Then, also, mobile towers are coming in today for us to resume normal flight activities.

“So, I want to assure the public that flight activities will not be disrupted in any way at all. We have not taken stock to know how much we lost. Like I said, NiMET especially, the weather people, they are there on the fourth or the fifth floor. All their equipment is gone. Well, we have other stations that read weather. We can make temporary arrangements to move some here, while we look at the grand plan to replace those equipment.”