Update On Fire At Ooni Palace |The Source

By Ayodele Oni

The  Palace of the Arole Oodua, the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has reacted to the fire which engulfed one of the buildings in the Palace Wednesday afternoon.

First hand information on the incident revealed that the fire started  inside one of the buildings within the palace, but the timely intervention of men of fire service prevented its spread to other buildings.

The Administrative Officer of the State Fire Service, Fatai Aremu, who confirmed the incident, said his men were  s on site, battling to put out the fire.

It could not however be ascertained as at press time whether the fire incident affected traditional antiquities.

In a statement, the Director of Media and Palace Affairs, Mr Moses Olafare, explained that the fire affected a tiny part of one of the administrative buildings within the premises of the Palace.

He stated that the incident occurred at about 1:15pm, Wednesday 19th, August 2020, leaving no harm to the oldest palace in Yoruba land.

“The minor inferno which lasted for about 20 minutes was immediately put out by the collective efforts of people in the palace led by the Ooni’s Chief Security Officer, Kolawole Emmanuel, later joined by men of the Fire Services from the state government, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife.

“Aside from the fact that there was no causality whatsoever, the fire was just a minor occurrence which was nothing to be compared to the misleading huge pictures being painted in the media, particularly the social media.”

According to him, it is suspected to have emanated from an electric spark, measures are currently in place to reveal the cause of the inferno.