A section of the state-owned broadcast outfit, Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), Basorun, Ibadan, was on Wednesday razed by fire.
According to reports, the fire started from the recording studio section, located inside the expansive complex.
The fire which raged for more than four hours was feared to have done a lot of damage to equipment and facilities in the studio.
The fire incident, which caused a lot of pandemonium within the broadcast station, saw staff and visitors running for safety as spirited efforts were made to put out the inferno.
The incident led to an abrupt end of broadcast by the state-owned outfit since around 2pm on Wednesday, as a combined team of fire fighters from the federal, state and Airforce battled to put out the inferno.
Speaking on the incident, the Executive Chairman of BCOS, Prince Dotun Oyelade, explained that a power surge as a result of high voltage which affected an equipment in the studio area led to the fire.
He said a combined team of federal, state and Airforce fire services was able to prevent the fire from spreading to other areas of the building.
Oyelade noted that he could not ascertain the level of damage caused by the inferno for now until the fire is completely put out.
“It was around half past 1 in the afternoon, just as we were preparing for the next live programme which was a sports programme.
“About that time, the IBEDC restored power abruptly, twice in one minute.
“So, our engineers have confirmed that the surge was as a result of high voltage that affected one of the equipment in one of the studios.
“And we know that because it is a broadcast studio, it has its construction peculiarities. One of them is that, because of its acoustic nature, where you have foams sandwiched in each wood, in order to forestall audio interferences, the smoke could not escape and the fire was enlarged because of that too,” the chairman said.
He added that no casualty was recorded in the incident.
Oyelade commended men of the fire services and their swift response to the distress call, which he said helped to control the fire and prevented it from escalating to other parts of the building.
