Furniture and building materials worth millions of naira have been destroyed by fire that gutted some shops in Minna on Monday.
The fire incident occurred around 2pm on Monday along Shiroro road in Minna.
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Eyewitnesses said the cause of the fire is currently unknown because there was power outage when the fire began.
Firefighters from both the Federal and State fire service, who responded to distress calls, spent over two hours trying to contain the fire from spreading to other buildings.
Eyewitnesses said that the fire began all of a sudden and took over the shops rapidly, giving no opportunity for the owners of the shop to save some of the items.
What is lost
An owner of one of the affected shops, who was identified as Pastor Aaron, was seen in shock and tears as he lamented that he had lost everything.
“My house and my shop! How will I start? Everything I have is gone. Both my house and my shop is burnt. How will I start?”, he said as he wept profusely.
Another shop owner, who sells furniture and building materials, Obinna Collins, said that he could not save anything from his shop, adding that he did not know what happened.
“I cannot tell you what happened.
“I was inside my shop when I heard people shouting fire.
“I came outside and saw that the place has already started burning.
“So, I went back inside and tried to pack some of my goods outside but before I knew it, the fire was in my shop, so I couldn’t save anything.
“I lost everything inside my shop and some of the things I put outside.
“For now, I can’t say the amount of what I lost but it is much. I lost everything.”
One of the eyewitnesses, Abubakar Yahaya, said that he was among the people who placed calls to the fire service, saying that the fire service responded in time and have tried their best in putting the fire under control.
As at the time of filing the report, the details of the number of shops gutted by the fire remain unknown as the fire service is still trying to ensure that the fire is kept under control.
This fire incident is coming barely three days after another fire incident occurred at the Kure Ultra-modern Market in Minna where traders lost millions of naira.
