Goods and property worth millions of naira were on Thursday destroyed when some shops were gutted by fire in Ondo, the headquarters of Ondo West Local Government.
It was gathered that the incident occurred in Oka area of the town where automobile spare parts shops are situated.
According to an eyewitness, when the fire started in the morning, all efforts to put it out were not successful, which was said to have been caused by high voltage when electricity was restored to the area by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC.
The eyewitness further stated that men of the Ondo State Fire Service did not show up after calls were put through to them during the raging inferno.
Meanwhile, the owner of the affected shops, Alhaji Adewale Hassan, who appealed to the state government for assistance, said he had lost almost everything he had worked to the inferno.
“I left the shop at about 7:30pm yesterday (Wednesday) and was called upon by sympathisers, informing me that my shop was on fire, caused by the high votage of electricity brought by the BEDC, which resulted to explosion that effected the shops.
“Immediately, I called the fire service to our rescue but they did not respond, they said their vehicle was bad.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ondo State Command Mr. Femi Joseph, confirmed the incident, saying the command had commenced investigation into the incident, adding that no life was lost in the incident
“The fire started at about 10pm yesterday and burnt till this morning but we can’t quantify the level of the damage now but there was no life lost in the fire outbreak,” the PPRO stated.
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