An early morning fire broke out at Ijomu area of Akure, the Ondo State capital on Sunday gutting ten shops in the area, while goods worth over N300 million were lost to fire outbreak.
The cause of the inferno remained unknown but one of the victims attributed the fire outbreak to a power surge.
Another victim was said to have developed a heart attack after his two shops were razed down.
An eyewitness explained that the owner of the medicine stores received two trucks load of drugs on Saturday evening only to find the shops razed down on Sunday morning.
He explained that other occupants of the complex affected by the inferno include fashion designers, electrical and electronics dealers, adding that one of the fashion designers lost three industrial sewing and embroidery machines and four sewing machines to the fire.
He said the woman lost a heavy-duty power generating set and a refrigerator to the inferno besides several fabrics belonging to her numerous customers.
A youth in the area, Sola Omorege, said all efforts to put off the fire were not successful, saying they resolved to pack out some of the goods out of the shops to save them from being burnt.
He disclosed that the fire service failed to attend to the inferno due to non-functional equipment as they lamented there was no functional vehicle to fight the fire.
He also said when the Akure Airport Fire Service was contacted, the officials said it was out of their jurisdiction.
He said: “I think there’s need for the government to have a fire fighting equipment on the ground because this is becoming a recurrent situation where people are losing multimillion naira worth of goods and property that’s hampering the economy of the state.
“This is supposed to be a social service that government should render to the populace. If FUTA could have fire equipment, likewise Akure Airport, why can’t a whole state have functional fire equipment?
“This is unfair. If there’s a fire outbreak in Akure, do we have to wait for Ilesa to come and rescue us? I think the government should be in the position to come to the aid of the people.”
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