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A midnight fire Saturday has razed the Araromi auto spare parts market in Agodi-Gate, Ibadan, Oyo State.
It was gathered that the inferno started when power was restored at midnight.
“The fire emanated from one of the shops in the market after electricity supply was restored. The market has not had electricity for months,” an eyewitness, Mumini Raji, said.
It was also gathered that the fire could not be put out early enough due to the inability of fire service trucks to access the spots of the incident.
“The fire service guys had to drag their water hose to the market because they could not get to the spot with their vehicles,” Raji added.
According to reports, electricity supply was recently restored to the market after years of being without light.
A trader, who identified himself as Samson said the last time the market witnessed such tragedy was in 1983, noting that the level of destruction then was not up to this latest one
Another trader identified as Mutiu, said: “The fire started around 11pm. I got there around 2am.
“We heard that it’s like there was a power surge from electric cables and it fell on some materials like nylons, rubber and tyres that aided the fire. It has spread up to close to the nearby mosque but they are still battling it.
“Many shops with goods and money got burnt completely. The tyre section was burnt completely; the axis where they sell iron and metal objects and some engine parts were also razed.
“The fire fighters actually tried and they responded on time but the problem they faced f was that many people there had different vehicles parked recklessly and that’s how they left it overnight,maybe as their own security measure, but it affected the fire trucks from moving close to the scene of the fire easily.”
When contacted, the Chief Fire Officer in Oyo State, Moshood Adewuyi, confirmed the incident.
“The incident started overnight but we are glad that there is no casualty. Currently, we cannot give figures of the number of shops that got burnt because our men are still there,” he said.