Fire destroys goods worth millions in A/Ibom market

A fire has destroyed eight lockup shops with goods worth millions of naira in the popular Itam Market, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

It was gathered that the fire which cause was uncertain started from a section of the market where there was no electrical connection.

A visit to the market on Thursday revealed that two out of the eight affected shops were razed down before men of the state fire service arrived.

It was learnt that the fire which started at about 9pm did not escalate to the entire market as youths mobilised and evacuated goods from many shops before the fire was put out.

One of the victims, Mr John, who sells stationeries, said he lost everything to the fire.

He said, “I left the market around 7pm, and by some minutes past nine, one of the security men called me that my shop had burnt down. I rushed back and was devastated when I saw everything in my shop gone down.

“The fire service people were here when I came but I couldn’t remove even a pin from the shop,” adding, “Honestly, I don’t know where to start from.”

Another victim, Aniekpeno Akra, said he learnt about the fire through a call from someone, but that on reaching his shop, he found out that the havoc had already been done.

Speaking on the incident, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of Traders Forum Association of the market, Elder Godwin Ebong, who was grateful to God that no life was lost, said on hearing of the fire the union immediately contacted men of the fire service who came within 45 minutes of the outbreak.

He explained that their timely response prevented the fire from spreading, adding that the union had reached out to both the local and state governments for support for the affected shop owners.

He further said preliminary investigation had not revealed the cause of the fire yet, noting that there was no electrical wiring in the section affected by the fire.

He said, “Till now, we cannot ascertain the cause of the fire outbreak. We have conducted our internal investigation and have not discovered the source. We are still hoping that few days from now we will find out what happened.”

Also speaking, the Special Assistant on Trade and Investment to Governor Udom Emmanuel, Mr Idorenyin Raphael, said, “I called the fire service personnel. Within 20 minutes they were on ground to arrest the situation.”