No fewer than 14 shops stocked with variety of goods were yesterday burnt down as a Tuesday mid-night fire razed the popular Kuto Market in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Also, a Lagos store in the Lekki area of the state reportedly went up in flames on Wednesday.
The cause of the Ogun market fire is yet to be ascertained, however, DAILY POST reports that it broke out in the wee hours of Wednesday when many of the traders had retired for the day.
Though properties worth millions of Naira, food items: bags of rice, yam flour, beverages, among others, were burnt; there was no casualty recorded in the incident.
The Caretaker Chairman, Abeokuta South Local Government Area, Olusola Ekundayo, who visited the market on Wednesday, told newsmen that investigation would be conducted to unravel the cause of the fire.
Ekundayo said, “It happened just last night and we are here today to assess the situation. I can’t say anything about the cause for now. We will investigate the matter and then know the next line of action,” the Chairman noted.
Firefighters who were said to have arrived the scene of the inferno a few minutes after 10pm, battled for some considerable minutes to put it out. Although it was learnt that but for the intervention of the firefighters from the Lagos State Fire Service, the fire could have razed the entire building.
Mrs. Isiwatu Adewuyi, the ‘Iyaloja’ of Kuto Market, expressed shock over the incident and appealed to government to assist the victims.
Meanwhile, based on eyewitnesses accounts, the fire that gutted the store in Lekki area of Lagos started around 12 pm.
The Director of the State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, while confirming the incident, said: “The last floor of the two-storey building was affected in the fire incident.
“The last floor has two sides: a residential block of five self-contained rooms. The rear part of the floor is used for commercial purpose and this is where the Park and Shop is.
“The fire started from an AC, which was left unattended to.”
Fadipe said there was no casualty in the incident, however, firefighters from the Lekki Phase 2 and Onikan fire stations responded.
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