The Laranto Market in Jos, popularly known as Katako, is the second-largest market aside from the Jos Terminus Market and equally located at the heart of the city where people from far and near meet for their businesses.
Divided into sections, the Laranto area offers wholesale and retail purchases of goods and services of various kinds.
- Fire razes hundred shelves in Jos Timber Market
- Dearth of animals, low patronage threatening Jos zoos
Items like second-hand cardigans, garri, grains, timber, plastic rubber, shoes among others are some of the commodities readily available in the market at affordable rates.
In recent times, however, the biggest challenge facing the market, according to different business owners, is the recurring incident of the inferno that has been destroying million naira worth of properties especially during the harmattan.
Benue/Plateau Trust observed that the fire incidents in the Laranto market have been a recurring experience for over 20 years and usually happened between November and December when harmattan sets in.
Different sections of the market have suffered fire outbreaks that resulted in the loss of a huge sum of properties.
Most disturbing, according to the traders, is that no concerted efforts are put in place towards preventing the continuing fire incidents in the area by the authorities thus far.
Just, as usual, this year’s inferno occurred on Tuesday, at about 11 p.m, which came at the start of this year’s harmattan, causing serious mayhem across sections in the area especially the Hausa Line Timber shelves.
Adamu Abdullahi, an eyewitness, said the fire started at night, but couldn’t say exactly what had caused it. “You see more than a hundred shelves of timber and other valuables were burnt during the Monday night inferno,’’ he said
“The incidents occurred at about 11:p.m. Although firefighters did their best, the inferno had destroyed dozens of timber shelves before their arrival. The fire lasted for many hours. Men of the fire service and some business owners tried all they could to put out the fire.”
In the previous years, business owners often attached the cause of the incident to an electrical fault. They also said the inferno occurred usually when power was restored.
Last year, when a similar incident occurred where 14 shops and other properties were reportedly burnt, an electrical fault was said to have been the cause.
Chairman of Timber Hausa Line, Alhaji Aliyu Yusuf Umar, told Benue/Plateau Trust that the government had not responded to them despite several requests made for fire-fighting equipment.
“We couldn’t rest on our oars noticing annually, during harmattan, incidents of fire outbreak in the market. To address the issue, we requested the government severally to help us with firefighting vehicles to station in the market or if need be, dig boreholes that will assist us during an emergency but nothing has been done yet.’’
The Caretaker Chairman of Jos North LGA, Hon. Usman Shehu Bala, who visited the scene of the incident on behalf of Governor Lalong, sympathised with business owners who have lost their properties during the inferno.
He however said the state government would set up a committee to investigate the cause of the recurrence of fire incidents in the market to avert further occurrence.
