Traders at the Bright Street section of Onitsha Main Market are now
counting their losses, following last Tuesday night fire that gutted goods
worth millions of naira at the market. The fire, according to a source, started
at about 9.45 pm on the first floor of one of the storey buildings and
destroyed some warehouses which were allegedly stocked with rice, chemicals and
other spiritual materials worth over N50 million. The source, however, noted
that the inferno did not affect other shops located on the ground floor. One of
the eye-witnesses, Mike Okongwu, said when the fire started at that odd hour, a
vigilante man guarding the area saw smoke coming out from one of the shops when
it became unbearable, he alerted the chairman of the street traders, Ifeanyi
Chukwudum (Ifetex), who immediately contacted the police for a dispatch of some
policemen to the scene. At the scene of the incident, fire fighters from Onitsha Main
market and their counterpart from Okpoko Fire Service Station were on ground to
contain the inferno from spreading its tentacles. The Fire Officer, Okpoko Fire
Service Station, Ogbaru Local Government, Mrs. Mary Affah, said her men arrived
the scene about fifteen minutes later on receiving a phone call over the fire
outbreak, even as she noted that the cause of the fire incident was yet
unknown. She disclosed that two of her fire officers sustained various degrees
of injuries while attempting to put out the fire.
Vanguard Newspaper
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