Fire wreaks havoc in Lagos

Also razed on Thursday evening was a popular filling station in the Lawanson area of Surulere, Lagos. It was gathered that the fire broke out around 6pm, causing havoc in the area.
A few buildings close to the station were affected. The real cause of the inferno could not be immediately ascertained, but eyewitnesses said a petro tanker exploded at the station, which started the fire.

Fire fighters fought the fire and eventually put it out.

An eyewitness told the reporter: “I was coming back from work when I saw people running helter-skelter around Lawanson. Then I heard an explosion. A petrol tanker exploded and it destroyed the filling station completely. People were doing their best to put out the fire.”

The plank market, located behind the Ketu Community Health Centre, housed many stores that were selling building planks, building materials and other household items in large quantities. Daily Sun gathered that the inferno, however, destroyed all the goods located within the market. A conservative estimate put the loss at hundreds of millions of naira.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire was started by a spark from a prepaid metre at about 4am. Some residents of the area, who spoke with Daily Sun, noted that they heard a loud noise early in the morning, as the electric poles in and around the market exploded.

Mrs. Kofoworola Ejoh, one of the market leaders, who also owns one of the affected buildings, recounted her loss while speaking with the reporter. Hear her: “It was very early in the morning. I heard a very loud spark around our market. I was confused, and I just prayed and hoped that the market was not on fire, because I could hear several explosions. The time then was around 4am. By the time I rushed to the market, it was truly our market that was burning. I shouted. I rushed around to look for my maids and children. That nobody died in the fire accident was one thing to be thankful for. But I lost so much money. If you are familiar with plank markets, you would know the things there cost a lot. Everything was destroyed.
“All the efforts of our boys to put out the fire were unsuccessful, as there was not enough water to fight the fire. I can only beg all the stakeholders to come together to sink a borehole around here so that we could have enough water to put out the fire in case of a recurrence. Personally, I lost goods worth millions of naira this morning.”

Mr. Oludayo Awoyemi said he had been trading in the market, which is one of the oldest in Lagos, for over 20 years. The father of five wondered how he would be able to bounce back to life from the loss. He also claimed to have lost to the inferno over N500,000 raw cash which he kept in the safe to enable him place an order for some goods this weekend. He said he also had about 100 bags of foodstuff in the store worth well over N5 million. “How can I possibly survive this crisis? From where will I start? How will my children feed or pay their tuitions in schools,” he queried, weeping uncontrollably.
The chairman of the market, Mr. Abayomi Rasheed said he was very sad by the disaster. He averred that the fire was able to damage so much because of street gates in the area that were put under locks and key. The development, he noted, prevented the fire service officials whom he said had arrived early enough from accessing the market. He condemned the development, which he noted occurred in spite of the state government’s directive against locking of street gates.
He said men of the Lagos State Fire Service had been around since 5am, but regretted that they could not combat the fire until they were able to break a part of the wall. By then, he stated, the damage had been done.
Daily Sun gathered that Lagos State fire fighters were eventually able to put out the inferno after breaking the wall.
The chairman also expressed fears that government might use the fire as an excuse to seize the market from them. Such action, he said, would further compound the agony of the loss on the victims.

After the fire was put out, some of the traders were seen erecting planks to demarcate their portions. They said they were ready to reclaim their store and prevent government from taking over the land.
“Help us tell the government not to see this disaster as an opportunity to seize the market from us. Because, this is what has happened in most places that were destroyed by fire. Before you know it, local government officials would start to cordon off the area, send the traders away and begin all kinds of promises to relocate them. This we would not want at all.
“The loss here is total. Everything is gone. I’m sure the loss would run into hundreds of millions of naira. If government would help us by rebuilding this place, we would be glad. That is what we want. They should not chase us away,” the chairman pleaded.