On Tuesday, goods worth over N50 million were gutted by fire while three people were injured at the popular Electronics International Market Onitsha in Anambra State.The cause of the fire isn’t yet known but the inferno was said to have started at about 3.am from one of the shops inside the market.
According to an eye witness:
“Immediately we discovered that there was an outbreak of fire in one of the shops, I alerted the vigilante commander, Mr. Jideofor Okacha and we started making contacts for help but all efforts were in vain as none of the fire service stations contacted responded except Okpoko Fire Service Station”.
Mr. Jideofor Okacha said:
“We tried to break the shop to stop the fire with our fire extinguisher, but to no avail and the security men from one of the new generation banks located inside the market brought their extinguisher but to no avail. Instead, the fire escalated, touching the double shop apartment and other near-by shops in the market.
“As it went out of control, we called the Okpoko Fire Service men at about 4.am and they responded promptly with their vehicle and put out the fire.”
He said the Okpoko fire service men were called and emptied their tank on the inferno.
He said:
“Nobody died because it was in the midnight and people were still sleeping but some of the security men with me from a new generation bank sustained various degrees of injury as we tried to stop the fire”.
Vanguard