Flammable Cities: Urban Conflagration and the Making of the Modern World

17. “There Is More to This Fire Than Meets the Eye”: Anatomy of Fire Outbreaks in Lagos, Nigeria, 1980–2008

17 “There Is More to This Fire Than Meets the Eye” Anatomy of Fire Outbreaks in Lagos, Nigeria, 1980–2008 A O Recurring conflagrations in the West African port city of Lagos in the 1860s– 1880s—which earned it the reputation of a “veritable fire-place,” reminiscent of the “flowers of Edo” discussed in Jordan Sand and Steven Wills’s chapter in this volume—and since the 1980s have attracted popular commentary and newspaper coverage in Nigeria.1 However, the causes, management, and aftermath of these outbreaks, which raise critical issues of governance, have barely received attention in Nigerian historiography.2 Yet the fire incidents of the 1980s– 2008 not only differ from those of the nineteenth century; they also epitomize the crisis of Nigeria’s post-1970s political economy, which was dominated by the export of crude oil. This is illustrated by the patterns, dynamics, management, and aftermath of major fire incidents at some critical sites of economic and sociopolitical contestations—shantytowns, markets, and strategic high-rise buildings— in Lagos between 1980 and 2008. These incidents are symptomatic of public sector failure, as reflected in government policies on urban planning, electricity, housing and water supplies, fire prevention, and the management of fire outbreaks. Several key issues of governance—supply of potable water and electricity, effective firefighting services, urban housing, and town planning—are implicated in the Lagos fire disasters. The failure of the state sector to provide adequate 353 urban infrastructure, especially a regular supply of electricity, forced many inhabitants of Lagos to rely on gasoline-powered electrical generators, which often exploded when overused or powered by contaminated fuel.3 Firefighting was hampered by the lack of water supplies and citizens’ violations of town planning laws, often with official complicity. Consequently, even when firefighters responded to distress calls, their fire engines were often hindered by insufficient access roads and neighborhood security gates. The government, too, exploited postfire reconstruction to renovate markets at no political cost and to gain political capital. The politics of arson accompanied the sudden wealth that accrued to Nigeria, a major oil-exporting country, following the Arab–Israeli war of 1973. Massive public earnings without corresponding expenditure controls and accountability permitted high-scale theft of public funds, the evidence of which corrupt officials used arson to destroy, along with several high-rise public buildings. The discussion in this chapter is based largely on newspaper reports and commentaries. These sources capture popular perspectives on fire outbreaks and, especially, the voices of the victims and other stakeholders. While the personal prejudice and ideological leanings of a reporter or the newspaper house could influence the slant of an editorial or a report, and sensationalism often colors political reporting, the reporting of social issues, such as fire incidents and similar communal tragedies, is generally balanced and credible. News reports from different newspapers were compared and supplemented with anecdotal evidence and the author’s personal experience of living in the city since 1987. Lagos: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Antecedents The port of Lagos was a major outlet for the transatlantic slave trade between the early eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. In 1851, the British, purporting to abolish the slave trade, intervened in a dynastic dispute in Lagos and formally imposed colonial rule in 1861. By 1900, Lagos had become West Africa’s leading port city and commercial center. The population of Lagos grew steadily from 25,083 persons in 1866 to 37,452 in 1881 and 41,487 in 1901. It rose to 73,766 in 1911, 98,303 in 1921, 126,474 in 1931, 230,256 in 1950, and 655,246 in 1963.4 By the late 1990s, Lagos had attained the status of a megacity, with an estimated population of 12 million in 2006.5 The metropolitan area covered 18 square miles in 1911, 24.24 square miles in 1931, and at present, approximately 100 square miles. 354 A O A major consequence of the population explosion was the haphazard pattern of settlement on the two major axes of human occupation: Lagos Island and the Mainland. The colonial government operated a policy of residential segregation by creating exclusive residential quarters for the expatriate community at Ikoyi and Victoria Island, while leaving the indigenous community to occupy other parts of Lagos Island.6 By the early twentieth century, the African section of the city had become overcrowded and was the site of bubonic plague outbreaks between 1924 and...