The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) says the emergency incident that temporarily disrupted operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was not caused by a fire but by the accidental discharge of the airport’s FirePro fire suppression system.
Director of Airport Operations, Captain Abdullah Mahmoud, who made the clarification while briefing journalists after the incident, said emergency protocols were immediately activated following reports of what was initially believed to be smoke inside the terminal.
According to him, airport authorities swiftly evacuated passengers and staff from the affected building to ensure their safety before carrying out an investigation.
Mahmoud said preliminary findings revealed that the FirePro system, an aerosol-based fire suppression system commonly installed in equipment bays, generator rooms and other areas where water or foam cannot be used, had discharged unexpectedly.
He said the system was designed to activate automatically when smoke or heat is detected but stressed that there was no fire, smoke or excessive heat at the time of the incident.
“The investigation is ongoing to determine whether the system discharged automatically due to a fault or whether it was accidentally activated manually,” he said.
The FAAN’s official assured passengers that safety remains the authority’s top priority, noting that the airport’s emergency response team operates round the clock and regularly reviews emergency preparedness to ensure rapid response to any incident.
He said once the terminal was confirmed safe, efforts immediately shifted to restoring normal flight operations in order to minimise disruption to passengers and airlines.
Mahmoud said flight operations have since resumed, with Virgin Atlantic being the airline most affected because passenger check-in had already commenced before the evacuation.
Mahmoud noted that the airline resumed processing passengers after the terminal was declared safe and had departed, while other airlines also continued normal operations.
Commending the response of airport workers and stakeholders, Mahmoud praised passengers for their cooperation during the evacuation and lauded FAAN staff and airline operators for ensuring seamless handling of arriving passengers.
Despite the temporary relocation of arrivals from Terminal 2 to a temporary terminal, he said all passengers successfully received their baggage, with no reports of missing luggage.
He described the coordinated response by all stakeholders as “fantastic” and credited their professionalism for the swift recovery of airport operations.
