MMIA fire: 14 trapped persons rescued, 3 flights diverted – FAAN

2026-02-23 - 19:57

By Dickson Omobola Following the fire outbreak at the Old Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has disclosed that the 14 persons initially trapped have been fully rescued. FAAN also stated that six casualties, which comprised three males and three females, were in stable condition, while one affected individual has been transferred to the FAAN Headquarters Hospital for further medical evaluation and remains stable. Eyewitnesses said at about 3:20 pm, smoke was seen rising from the terminal, leading many people around the area to run for safety. Addressing newsmen at the airport after the incident, the Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, said investigations into the cause of the fire had commenced, while civil and structural engineers would assess the integrity of the building. Kuku said although British Airways, Lufthansa, and Emirates flights scheduled to land at the airport were diverted, flight operations would resume shortly. Her words: “We did have about three flights that were diverted. However, the operations will be back up and running in the next half an hour. In terms of investigations, they are ongoing. But I think what is critical is to make sure that the fire itself is controlled and ensuring that we were able to activate our emergency operating procedures and get everybody out of the building with no fatality due to all of the coordination done by the agencies. “We have had renovation activities that are happening within the airport environment. But within the area where we believe the fire started from, there was nothing happening at that time. Rather, what we had were people moving things out because of the major renovation coming up. “From our investigation so far, the fire did start from the ground floor. Look behind me, you can see that it did escalate to the roof. But we are awaiting confirmation. “We have civil and structural engineers whose role is to make sure that once the fire has been contained, we bring in all the necessary professionals to test the integrity of the structure to determine what the next steps are.” Last year, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved N712 billion for the full rehabilitation of Terminal 1. Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the renovation involved stripping the old terminal down to its structural carcass.