On Thursday, 30th November, traders at Karmo Market in the
nation’s capital, lost goods worth million of naira to an inferno which started
before traders resumed for the day.
Residents
as well as shop owners claimed that they were woken up at about 12.30
am by the screams of people that saw heavy smoke billowing from the market.
A shop
owner said the incident took many of them unaware. She narrated how she lost
her drinks and other consumables.
Another
distributor said he lost good worth over N5 million. According to him, not much
was recovered as at the time he arrived at the market.
The
immediate cause of the fire, which lasted for more than six hours, was yet to
be ascertained as at the time of filing in this report. Traders could not
immediately put a figure to the worth of goods lost to the inferno.
Controller
of Abuja Fire Service, Mr. Julius Opetunsin confirmed the incident.
“We
received a call at about 2am about the fire and we turned out three fire appliances
from National Judicial Institute, Wuye and Gwarinpa. And we also turned out a
10,000 litres water tanker as back up.
“No
life was lost and no one was injured. The cause of the fire can’t be
ascertained yet,” he said.
Karmo
market is located in a slum, few kilometers away from Abuja’s city
centre.
Meanwhile,
FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello has promised the victims that the
administration will work with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)
and the Abuja Municipal Area Council to implement measures that would bring
succour to the victims.
Bello
lamented that the fire had come at the time the administration was considering
plans to upgrade the market and similar others located around the city to make
them safer and modern. This, he noted, is because the state of these
markets is inconsistent with the ideals of a modern city and would naturally
hinder safety operations during emergencies.
He praised the rescue
team which comprised NEMA, FEMA – the FCT emergency agency) and the Navy
fireteams for their prompt response and the professional manner with which they
isolated region of inferno to save a larger portion of the market. The Minister
expressed delight that the outbreak did not happen in the daytime when the
traffic condition of the road would have significantly hampered the movement of
fire-fighting machines and logistics.
The Director-General
of the NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja described the development as sad and harped on
the need to embrace measures that stop fires or prevent them from escalating.
He said people have a responsibility to follow the rules and regulations that
guide conducts that limit or eliminate this kind of occurrences.
The Chairman of Abuja
Municipal Area Council, Mr. Adamu Abdulahi Candido, indicated that the Area
Council has appealed for the return of the market to the community to enable
the Area Council work with the community to upgrade it. He noted that the last administration
had taken over the market but implored that the market should be reallocated to
the community as, according to him, “it is not good that community should
be without an own market.”
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