The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said no fire incident has occurred at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Saturday.
The General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, in a statement in Abuja, said there was only an equipment alarm triggered by high temperature.
Yakubu explained that the new international terminal was equipped with fire alarm that squarely responds to high temperature.
She stated that because of the prevailing high temperature in Abuja, the equipment triggered an alarm at the terminal, adding what appeared like smoke was actually the powder from the equipment. According to her, the incident was, however, swiftly curtailed by the in-built fire detection and protection system at the new terminal that triggered automatically.
“The building was designed and built with this protection system.
“The system comes up when it senses high ambient temperatures and sprays fire extinguishing agent.
“The residue of powder sprayed by the system was seen in the cloud, there was no fire at all.
“The Authority will like to reassure passengers and the public that there is no cause for panic, as the incident has been put under control and our firemen are clearing the remnant of powder after which operations will resume,” she said.
An eye witness, who pleaded anonymity, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the incident, which occurred at about 3pm was earlier believed to be fire. He said the incident also caused a lot of panic that led to suspension of operations at the terminal.
According to him, it appeared the fire alarm was very active, which made the situation to be quickly curtailed.
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