Nnewi— Goods worth over N50 million were
yesterday gutted by mid night fire while three
people sustained various degrees of injury at the
popular Electronics International Market Onitsha,
the commercial nerve center of Anambra State.
The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained as
at the time of filing this report 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".
Speaking with newsmen, the vigilante commander
stressed the need for a control switch to be
installed in the market, adding that on rushing to the
shop with other security operatives, thick smoke
was seen bellowing from the said shop.
"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 that initially, the effort of the Okpoko fire
service men was resisted by the ravaging inferno.
The water in their tank soon finished and they
rushed back to their office and came back almost
immediately and emptied their tank on the inferno.
"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".
