A fierce fire has gutted a six-room residential bungalow at Block D5, Ifedapo Estate in the Amuloko area of Ibadan, Oyo State, leaving the occupants with losses estimated in the millions of naira.

The Chairman of the Oyo State Fire Services Agency, Maroof Akinwande, confirmed the incident in a statement to journalists, explaining that the blaze was traced to a domestic gas cylinder that was left unattended.

Akinwande said the agency received a distress call from a resident identified as Odetunde at 2:53 p.m. Firefighters, led by Assistant Chief Fire Superintendent Amoo, were immediately dispatched to the scene.

By the time the crew arrived, the bungalow was already engulfed in flames. Firefighters battled to contain the inferno and succeeded in preventing it from spreading to nearby buildings in the densely populated estate.

No lives were lost and no injuries were reported, but the fire consumed household items, personal documents and other valuables belonging to the residents. Akinwande noted that the destruction underscored the danger posed by poorly handled cooking gas and other domestic appliances.

He urged residents to exercise extreme caution when using gas cylinders, stressing that they should never be left unattended, especially near open flames or heat sources. He also appealed to the public to call the fire service immediately an incident occurs and to provide clear, accurate directions to enable a rapid response.

Akinwande, who also serves as Special Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on Fire Reform, linked the latest incident to a broader pattern of preventable fires across Oyo State. He disclosed that the state recorded 246 fire outbreaks in 2025, with firefighters carrying out multiple rescue operations.

According to him, emergency responses during the year saved 42 lives, while 30 bodies were recovered from various fire and related incidents. He provided a month-by-month breakdown, showing fluctuating but persistent fire cases throughout the year, with dozens of incidents recorded almost every month.

The fire service chief reiterated that many of these outbreaks could have been avoided through basic safety measures, regular checks on gas installations and electrical wiring, and prompt reporting of hazards. He called on communities, landlords and tenants to treat fire safety as a shared responsibility to reduce the human and economic toll of such disasters.