The West African Examination Council, WAEC, has confirmed that computers, vital documents and 10 offices of the control department were destroyed by Tuesday's fire at its Kaduna zonal office.
The council however said examination papers were not affected by the inferno, which erupted at about 9.50 a.m.
Fidelis Gayan, deputy zonal coordinator in charge of Kaduna office, told journalists that he was at the office when the incident occurred, and that no casualty was recorded.
He said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.
Mr. Gayan told the News Agency of Nigeria that the fire probably started from an electrical spark or fault.
“We are running on generator. When they restored electricity, we saw smoke all over the place,” he said.
“We are grateful that no life was lost because most of our staff members were out to their various examination centres.’’
He said that the incident will not affect the ongoing examination because the question papers were safe.
He commended the Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Air Force, State University and State Fire Service for responding fast to the situation.
“We are grateful to all the fire service departments that responded very fast to the situation. Otherwise, the damage would have been more than this.’’
Deputy Controller of Federal Fire Service, Thompson Mohammed, reiterated the need for fire extinguishers to be installed in offices to reduce the rate of damages caused by fire.
“I am sure if there were fire extinguishers here with trained men, the damage would have been minimal.’’
He urged them to liaise with the service to train their staff on how to operate fire extinguishers, adding that “it is committed to discharging its duties effectively and promptly.’’
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