Fire gutted a five-storey building, known as UBA Plaza, on Bread Fruit Street, Lagos Island, on Saturday evening.
The building houses a branch of UBA on its third floor, several warehouses and shops, as well as offices, NAN reports.
Mr Uzuoma Aniekwe, who owns a shop on the ground floor of the building, told NAN that the fire started shortly before 5:00 p.m., and that he hurriedly evacuated his goods.
According to Aniekwe, the fire started on the fourth flood and spread rapidly to the fifth floor.
Although firemen from the Lagos State Fire Service, UBA and Julius Berger Plc., were battled the flame, part of the building was still smouldering as at 8.20 p.m.
A senior official with the Lagos State Fire Service, who was in mufti, but apparently in charge of rescue operation, told NAN that the compartmentalization of the warehouses was too compact for water to get through.
The official, who, however, refused to give his name said that the banking hall on the third floor might have remained intact, as well as many offices on the second floor.
The fourth and the fifth floors were the mostly affected, NAN observed.
NAN also observed that policemen and officials of other security agencies were on hand to prevent hoodlums from looting salvaged wares.