No fewer than 19 shops were on Thursday burnt and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed after a mysterious fire engulfed the Olowu Spare Parts Market in the Ikeja area of Lagos State.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the fire began sometime around midnight.
It was later put out through the joint efforts of emergency responders, including men of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services.
The spokesperson for the agency, Amodu Shakiri, said a call was made to the Ikeja Fire Station at about 3.19am.
He said, ‘We got there in three minutes of the call time. Unfortunately, we lost 19 shops. The owners of the shops along the street all trade in combustible materials. Most of them are condensers for refrigerators, air conditioners and the like.
‘All these are volatile combustibles. It aided the widespread of the fire but we were able to curtail it in time so that we did not record further losses.
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‘We also asked Alausa Station to join us. Despite the combustibles that were involved, there was no injury because the traders were not around.’
It was further gathered that some of the traders rushed to the scene of the fire early in the morning to salvage remnants of their goods.
Shakiri, however, attributed the fire to power disruption.
He said, ‘The cause is basically negligence because some people probably left their electronics on before they left the shop or maybe as a result of power disruption.
‘People are advised to always switch off their electronic devices and installations. It should also be unplugged from the wall socket when closing for the day.’
The Coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, on his part, said the fire affected 13 shops, four warehouses and one restaurant.
He, however, said no injury or death was recorded in the fire.