How Kano, Lagos, Borno traders lost over N100bn to fire

From Abdullateef Aliyu (Lagos), Hamisu Kabir Matazu (Maiduguri), Joshua Odeyemi, Terkula Igidi (Abuja), Salim Umar Ibrahim & Zahraddeen Yakubu Shuaibu (Kano)

Fire disasters in major markets have become a recurring decimal in Nigeria in recent times, with billions of money and property lost.

In Kano, fire razed three major markets, Singa Market, where commodities are sold; Kurmi Market, where books are sold, and Rimi Market, where furniture and spices are sold, all at the metropolis.

The executive secretary of the Kano State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Saleh Jilih, said preliminary findings put the worth of wealth destroyed in the inferno at N6billion.

“At Rimi market, 59 shops were destroyed and wealth of N35,240, 000 was lost. Also, at Kurmi market, 139 shops were destroyed and goods worth N3, 174, 150, 285 were destroyed. At Singer Market, 346 shops were affected and wealth of N1.9million were also destroyed,” Jilih said.

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He, however, could not put an estimate at the value of shops destroyed in the market, which he said ran into billions.

Borno

The recent fire outbreak in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, razed two major markets and destroyed property worth over N100bn.

Monday Market is the largest, while Gamboru is the second largest in the city of Maiduguri.

Some of the traders who bring merchandise from Kano, Lagos and neighbouring countries that include Niger, Chad and Cameroon, revealed that goods on credit formed a larger part of their losses.

There are shops that deal in clothing and textile materials, shoes, foods and petrochemical products.

In an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, the general manager of Monday Market, Mustapha Loskori, said the inferno razed down over 10,000 shops with property worth billions of naira in the market.

“I cannot tell you the exact amount of money lost or the number of shops we lost, but we have over 10,000 shops.

“We also have squatters and temporary sheds that are uncountable. The losses are worth billions of naira,” he said.

A trader, Malam Jamilu Abubakar, said there was no shop in the Monday Market with goods worth less than N10 million.

With this estimate, over N100 billion wealth was said to have been destroyed in the Monday Market fire alone.

The chairman of the Gamboru Market Traders Association, Alhaji Modu Maiduri, said the timely intervention of firemen saved the market from total destruction.

“Not much loss was recorded, but I can say that property of less than N100m were lost. There wasn’t much destruction due to the timely intervention of the fire service,” he said.

In separate visits to assess the level of damages, the Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, who was heavily weighed down by sympathy for the victims of disaster, donated N1bn to the affected traders and another N1bn as the initial fund for the reconstruction of the market.

The governor ordered for reconstruction with an upgrade of the market plan to allow safe spaces and access roads to help emergency situations in the market.

Lagos

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that Lagos State has also seen a drastic rise in fire incidents.

The last figure of the fire incidents released by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) showed that a total of 9 fire incidents were reported in the month of January. This is in addition to several others that were not reported.

Daily Trust on Sunday recalls that on January 26, 2023, fire gutted a building at the popular Balogun Market in the Lagos Island area.

The fire started in one of the popular market buildings before spreading to other apartments.

Operatives of the Lagos State Emergency Agency, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services swiftly responded to the distress call.

The same market witnessed another inferno three months back.

Shortly after February 17, there was fire outbreak at the Owode Onirin iron market along Ikorodu road, which affected lines 1 and 2.

Further investigation revealed that the inferno started from the back shops and quickly spread to other part of the section 1 of the market.

Goods worth millions of naira were also destroyed in a fire incident that occurred on March 8 at Akere spare parts market, Ajegunle, in the Apapa area of Lagos.

The corpse of a 65-year-old security guard was also said to have been recovered near the scene of the incident while an investigation into the incident is ongoing following several conflicting accounts of the immediate cause of the attack.

Similarly, on March 28 morning, a fire broke out at the Balogun Market, Lagos, killed one person and injured seven others.

The fire affected a five-story shopping complex and the fifth floor, where the fire started, has over 300 shops

Also, on March 30, an early morning fire, on Thursday razed down a section of the Olowu automobile spare parts market in Lagos. The fire was reported to have started at 2am and affected 13 shops, four warehouses and one restaurant.

Also, traders reportedly lost over N1bn in November 2022 to fire disasters at Tejuosho market in Yaba.

Ibrahim Farinloye, the territorial coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said it was difficult to estimate the losses from market fires because there are no records of the volume of goods in the market but said the losses run into billions of naira.

For instance, it was gathered that the last fire incident at Balogun market affected a five-story shopping complex and the fifth floor where the fire started has over 300 shops.

Daily Trust on Sunday, however, reports that the state government has launched an initiative to rebuild the Akere market, which was razed completely. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu donated N100m towards the initiative.

‘Negligence, electricity sparks caused Kano markets fire’

In Kano, the public relations officer of the state fire service, Saminu Yusuf Abdullahi, said investigations revealed that electric sparks caused fire outbreaks across the major markets in the state.

“Negligence of the people at the markets contributed a lot. They usually leave the electrical appliances on before going out.

“At Singer Market, the electricity started from the cold room. They left the cold room on, and when they restored power supply at night, there were electric sparks.

“The incident at Rimi Market is also electricity. It started from temporary shops, where they left a naked wire at a temporary shop.

“The same thing happened at Kurmi Market. There is no electricity at the market but there are people using solar. That incident started with a local solar battery,” he said.

On what the service is doing to avert future occurrences, he said it had begun sensitisation across the markets.

“We are trying to draw the attention of the markets management to ensure that they use a central electricity change over. When it is turned off, electricity automatically turns off. Rimi Market has started that and we are reaching out to other markets to emulate that in order to avoid the fire outbreaks in the future.

“The light and electrical appliances can be controlled that way at least.

“We are also asking the management of the markets to also stop food vendors from cooking at the markets, they should be cooking from home or outside and bring the food.

“My advice to the businessmen is that they should be careful and always check their electrical appliances before they leave,” he said.

Poor market designs, quackery spiking fire incidents – FFS CG

Speaking with Daily Trust on Sunday on the issue of incessant market fires in Nigeria, the controller-general of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), Jaji Abdulganiyu, said preventing fire outbreaks is one of the mandates of the service.

He said other mandates of the FFS are to ensure the safety of lives and property by extinguishment, control and prevention of fire outbreaks through regulation, training, enforcement, public enlightenment programmes and impact reduction during emergencies through adequate preparedness.

He said the engagement of quacks in the installation and maintenance of electrical fittings, gadgets, or devices, overload of sockets, leaving electrical appliances plugged in and unattended after closing of work were responsible for most fire incidents.

He also said statistics have shown that unapproved building plans, lack of examination and proper supervision before, during and after building construction by government agencies are also responsible.

Jaji said, “This is highly lamentable and I commensurate deeply with victims of such hazards, hoping they are able to recover and find some respite from well-meaning individuals, family and friends.

“It is not uncommon to find arsonists as brains behind some of these fires and where it is so, it is condemnable and I am sure the law shall catch up with those who may still be on the run as some have been used as deterrents in previous cases.

“With the exception of arson, fires in the marketplace are largely a result of human error or carelessness. To be very specific, poor housekeeping/handling of electronic and electrical devices are the number one cause of fire hazards.

“It will be wise to note and be cautious of these because ignoring this point has led to colossal damage of property and in many cases loss of lives.

“The design of our markets was originally at least near perfect and allowed access roads for cars to drive through, but the abuse of infrastructure have resized the allowable space for firefighting trucks to drive through or manoeuvre. This poses another big challenge to a quick firefighting response.

“Only a few traders and shop owners are enlightened and cultured enough to appreciate the importance of obtaining and installing fire protection devices like hydrants, water sprinkler systems, smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, fire blankets, etc. Hence, the need to continually enlighten them to build and develop a safety culture.”

Build markets with fire resistant materials – Experts

Speaking on the incessant fires razing markets across the country, experts are of the opinion that the intervention by state government, either through relief efforts or rebuilding the market will not offer a lasting solution to fire incidents except concrete steps are taken to prevent reoccurrences.

Experts in the building industry advocated markets built with fire resistant materials in order to curtail the spate of fire outbreaks in public markets.

For Kunle Awobodu, a builder and a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIOB), said the way Nigerian markets were built and operated make them susceptible to fire outbreaks.

He said that when traders use generators in the markets and often leave them in the shops overnight, they predispose the market to fire once there is any electricity spark.

He said, “Planning is one major challenge we have in our markets. All those shops in the markets are congested and there is lack of adequate air space. Then there are no firefighting elements like water and fire extinguisher. But before these one you look at the kind of materials that are used in building the markets. There are materials that are fire resistant and are not easily combustible. It is necessary to use such materials in building structures in congested environments like markets.

“It is high time to avoid wooden materials in roofing markets because some of these shops are used for cooking food, especially those ones, the materials used in constructing them should be made of concrete and steel. When markets are built with timber and zinc, they cannot resist fire.”

He also warned against use of aesthetic materials like wall papers that are combustible in markets.

Emmanuel Madu, a civil engineer, who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday, said every market had potential risk of fire from electrical sparks or criminal acts of arson; hence the need to plan and build markets with fire resistant materials.

He said, “Many of these markets are constructed with materials that are not fire-resistant. For example, where there are risks of fire outbreak from electrical fire hazard or even arson – criminal intent, if you want to design a market, you have to have fire risk in mind; one by choice of materials that are fire resistant in nature.

“If you are designing reinforced concrete structure to resist fire, there are minimum standards. You follow the building codes that are already recommended to resist fire for a number of hours. If you want fire resistance for one hour, there is cover for reinforcing the concrete to resist fire for one hour and if you want the reinforced concrete to resist fire for two or more hours, there is cover for that as well. These things can be specified ab initio.”

He said the way and manner markets are compartmentalised with wooden and zinc materials is a recipe for fire disasters, saying it is safer to build markets with concrete and steel.

“You can do market roofing by concrete decking or use steel to avert fire disasters such as the ones we are witnessing now across the country,” Madu added.

He also said fire hydrants should be installed at strategic locations in markets and traders trained to fight fire anytime there is an outbreak instead of waiting for the fire department to respond.

Madu also stressed the need for enough spacing of shops to allow enough airflow and ensuring that the right electrical wiring specifications are used.

NEMA tasks traders on emergency response

Also speaking, Ibrahim Farinloye, who is the coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of the National Emergency Management Agency, said leadership of the market must be prepared for emergency responses.

He said the losses to fire incidents are unquantifiable, advising traders to insure their goods.

Farinloye said, “We have gone to two three four markets, including Ladipo, Lagos Island to mobilise them, so that we can train them to have at least two or three market marshals. They would be trained on fire and disaster management so that at any point in time, when there is any fire incident, they would be first responders.”

The NEMA boss also complained about how markets plans are distorted with illegal structures, calling for authorities to ensure compliance in case of emergencies.

“Every little space in the markets is occupied. The government has to take definite action to remove such obstructions. If they need to move them to a more modern place, it is safer so that we can have enough space to put in place facilities for emergency response. Those on the roadside should be removed.”

Corroborating, Jaji said FFS was planning collaborations with market associations in providing a functional fire station domiciled on the premises with a firefighting truck, or at least rapid response trucks that would be manned by firefighters.

He appealed to the private sector, state governments, local government area councils and market associations to ensure that the fire stations are built to standard and operated based on a globally acceptable modus operandi.

“The Federal Fire Service is willing to train the market security guards as fire wardens at the National Fire Academy so that first aid firefighting can be learned and prep them for eventualities relating to fire hazards,” Jaji said.

He called on Nigerians to support the men of the service and desist from obstructing or attacking firemen while discharging their statutory duties.

States need billions for reconstruction

The Borno State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Babakura Abba-Jato, said no amount of money would be enough to rebuild the Monday Market and compensate the losses incurred by the traders.

He said the market was an international market that gets supplies from Central Africa, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Jatau could not give the exact amount to be spent on the reconstruction but assured that the Zulum administration was ready to complete the multi-billion naira project so that the traders would return to their lawful businesses.

He said the N1bn provided by the state government was for the commencement of the reconstruction of the market.

Also speaking on the assessment of the number of wealth and shops destroyed by the fire in Kano, the executive secretary of SEMA, Saleh Jilih, said the government was planning to support the traders.

He said the state government under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had donated the sum of N250 million to the traders to reduce their losses.

He added that they forwarded the assessment report to the NEMA for further support from the federal government.

However, the chairman of Singer Market traders, Alhaji Uba Zubairu Yakasai, said that since the buildings belonged to individuals, some had already started reconstruction, adding that any contribution would be disbursed to the affected victims.