In the wake of the fire which gutted some buildings inside Balogun market, located in Lagos Island, diverse videos began to make the rounds all over social media.
One of such videos was that shared by Katie Olivia Hopkins an English media personality, columnist and former businesswoman in which she took a swipe at Nigeria and her fire fighting methods.
In the video which Hopkins shared via her verified twitter handle, a man in a certain uniform could be seen attempting to use buckets of water to douse the flames.
Using the video as premise for comparing fire fighting services in the United Kingdom and in Nigeria, Hopkins tweeted saying: “Next time you want to criticise our fantastic British firefighters, be glad you aren’t Nigeria.”
Next time you want to criticise our fantastic British firefighters, be glad you aren’t Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/yCsqxmjqhT
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) November 5, 2019
The tweet sparked outrage all over social media, as Nigerians retorted, giving Hopkins a piece of their mind in a bid to put the rather controversial media personality in her place.
However, beyond the outrage, a review of the clip shared by Hopkins, as to ascertain if truly the man in the video is a staff of the Nigeria Fire Service.
Having obtained our exclusive videos and photos from the scene, we can clearly confirm at this moment that the man in question is not a member of Fire Service, as his uniform does not match that of the service.
At best he was just a concerned individual trying to do his patriotic best to help put out the fire, as photos below show the gears which men of the Fire Service wore as they combated the Balogun Fire.
With video and photo evidence present, we can come to the conclusion that contrary to the impression that that was a Nigerian firefighter, in Katie Hopkins’ tweeted video was a man who like many others was looking to lend a helping hand.
The fire which gutted sections of Balogun Market on Tuesday morning, led to the death of a police officer who was on duty at the scene.
The officer died after a section of the burnt building caved in during rescue operations.
Traders in the market are, however, counting their losses as they say goods worth several millions of naira were destroyed.
