More than 30 shops and property worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed at Kasuwar Waya, which is also called Urban Market, a section of the popular Muda Lawal market situated in Bauchi metropolis of Bauchi State on Friday.
The fire was said to have started at about 10am at one of the shops where traders sell palm oil, groundnut oil before it spread to where diesel is sold.
The fire was then said to have escalated to other shops where mattresses, drinks, fish and other goods were sold.
Although details of the actual cause of the fire incident were still sketchy as of the time of filing this report, our correspondent gathered from different sources at the scene that it was caused by a gas explosion.
Our correspondent who visited the scene of the fire saw a combined team of firefighters, made up of men of the Bauchi State Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and the Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, trying to put out the fire.
The firefighters battled the fire for over three hours before they were able to overpower it and put it out with the help of sympathisers and some of the traders.
One of the traders who sells fish, Alhaji Baba, who described the incident as an act of God and destined by him, said he was inside his shop when he was told that fire had started behind his shop.
“We immediately rushed to the scene to find out what was happening but we realised that it was a large fire that was beyond us. Because some of them, who are our neighbours sell oil, this triggered the fire and it grew within a short time and spread to other shops including ours.
“This is an act of God and it is a test from him. We accept it with prayers that we will pass this test and that he will restore all we’ve lost. We thank God that no life was lost.
“In my shop and all my neighbours, nothing was removed as the fire destroyed everything. I sell fish and if you go inside and check the fridges, you’ll see that all the fish were burnt, nothing saved. My neighbour, who has four shops at the same place and a shop where mattresses are sold, were all destroyed.
“The incident is sad and pathetic because we lost all our goods in the fire, although no life was involved. This my shop is worth millions but you can see nothing was removed. I am grieving but we submit all that has happened to God because he destined this to happen,” he stated.
An injector repairer, Olajide Akinwunmi, said all his properties worth millions of Naira and N20,000 cash were destroyed in the fire.
An official of the Kasuwar Waya market union, who’s the Sales Director, Bashir Adamu, said although they are yet to know the exact cause of the fire, they accept that it was sent by Allah.
He said with the level of damage that the fire has caused, they can only pray to God never to allow them to experience such again noting that people did their best in partnership with men of the Fire Service to control the fire, “and that was why the fire stopped at that point.”
Adamu added, “I was at my shop some meters away at about 10.30am when we noticed the sign of fire and it was as if it was a joke, it kept growing until it became a large fire.
“This incident caused us great panic because it has been a long while since such an incident occurred in this market. You can see that the government tried its best and sent firefighters and you can see them battling now to put off the fire.”
Asked about the number of shops affected, he said, “I cannot tell you the exact number now, but I can only estimate that they are more than 30 shops that were completely burnt down, and this is asides from the makeshift shops and goods that are sold around here.
“We are thankful to God that no life was lost and nobody was injured as a result of the incident.”
He, however, appealed to the state government to immediately set up fire service outlets in markets across the state to address emergency situations.
“If there was any fire service, the fire would have been immediately put under control, the level of destruction wouldn’t have been this much. People tried their best to put off the fire but they couldn’t before the firefighters came about an hour later,” he said.
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