Property estimated at millions of Naira was on Tuesday razed down to ashes in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
The fire outbreak which burnt down over 6 houses and 4 shops occurred at Eyo Edem Street, in Calabar South local government area of the State.
An eyewitness who gave his name as Desmond Etim lamented the incident and said the fire outbreak started at about 2.30am on Tuesday
Mr Etim said that though there was no electricity supply in the early part of the night, one of the shop owners may have left the appliances on.
“I want to believe that one of the shop owners may have left an electrical appliance on and went home which ignited the fire when light was later restored in the early hours of the morning”
Another eyewitness, however, told DAILY POST that the good part of it was that fire service officials responded on time, “I commended the prompt response of the State Fire Service,” he said.
He lamented the poor equipment of the fire service and called on Government to equip the agency with functional fire-fighting tools that will aid in delivering better services.
Our findings, however, revealed that though, no casualties or injuries were recorded, property worth millions of naira were destroyed as none of the occupants was able to pick out anything from the building which was completely razed down.
Confirming the incident, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of State Fire Service, Mr Cletus Makpere said the officials responded to the fire outbreak on time.
“The firemen were called about 2.30 am on Tuesday to put off fire outbreak at Eyo Edem. The cause of the fire is still under investigations; our men have gone there for post-fire inspection to ascertain the cause of the fire outbreak, that is the situation”
“We have not done the costing of the property burnt and we expect our men to come back with the report. From the report, we shall know what was burnt and what was at risk,” he stated.
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