The fire reportedly started around 7 pm in the room of one of the tenants before it spread to other flats.
Daughter to the landlady, Angela Echiet, while speaking with our correspondent on how the fire started said properties could have been salvaged had the State-owned fire service responded immediately after they were contacted.
In her words; “I think a few minutes later the generator went off.” She then asked the girl to go back and check what was wrong but asked her to first bring a rechargeable light she was charging in the room.
“When the girl went back into the room, she shouted that the room was in flames and that the fire was coming from the ceiling.
They all ran out of the building and raised the alarm. “I got a distress call from my mum who is the landlady, while I was still at work that the building was on fire.”
Continuing, Echiet said, “I immediately drove to the office of the Rivers State Fire Service at Mile One. On getting there, the gate was closed and the place was dark. I knocked but there was no response, so I entered the premises but saw no sign of life.
“I started shouting. Is there anyone here? Can you help? Then I heard a voice from the back without seeing the person.” He said, “Madam, you cannot get help here. We don’t have anything to work with. Go to the Federal Fire Service at Aba Road.”
“I then drove to the Federal Secretariat where I was directed. By the time I got back to our compound, the fire had already engulfed my apartment and the whole place was in flames.
“Personally, I lost land documents, my birth/ academic certificates, my international passports I just got, and other travel documents were gone. The same for the other apartment where the fire started. It is a huge damage,” she narrated in an emotion-laden voice.
She further said though firefighters from Shell Petroleum Development Company and Total E&P who one of the tenants had contacted later arrived and succeeded in putting out the fire, unfortunately, none of the occupants removed a pin.
“They (firemen) had difficulty accessing the building. So they just pull their pipes through. But by the time they settled with their water and everything around 8 to 9 pm, a lot of damage had been done,” she added,
While expressing relief that no life was lost, she said if help comes from the state government they will be glad, saying, “Because the times are hard. You can see we are going to start from scratch.
On her part, the landlady, Mrs Inemesit Echiet, appealed to the state governor, Nyesom Wike, to make the moribund state-owned fire service work again.
She stated, “I want to tell my beloved governor that he has done so well concerning roads and there is no hold-up. But fire engulfed my compound for two hours because the state-owned fire service was nowhere to be found.
“It was Shell, Total, and the Federal Fire Service that came and they only rescued my blocks, even the blocks can’t be used again, because the fire consumed everything. My tenants were also affected.”
Continuing, she said, “You heard my daughter narrating how she drove that night searching for fire service. If the State-owned Fire Service was functional and as beautiful as the governor has done the road and other projects, they would have come immediately when my daughter got to their office.
“Within 30mins they would have been here and properties would have been salvaged.”
When contacted, the spokesperson of the state Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko confirmed the incident, describing it as unfortunate.
