Fire Razes Part Of Masaka Market In Nasarawa

Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed by fire  that gutted several shops in Masaka Market of Karu local government of Nasarawa State on Friday night.

The incident which was said to have started at about 11pm affected some electrical and electronic shops.

Although no life was lost, a shop owner was reported to have slumped on noticing that his goods were completely razed.

The incident occurred barely three weeks after an inferno at the Lafia modern market which razed 30 shops.

A shop owner, Aliyu Nababa, who deals in jewelries, said he lost everything in the incident.

He said the level of damage was high because of the inability of firefighters to arrive the scene on time.

“I was woken up at my residence by a neighbour who told me that the market was on fire. By the time I got there, the fire had spread, and we did our best to stop it from spreading but all efforts proved abortive.

“If fire service personnel were on ground on time, the fire would not have spread like it did,” he said.

The chairman, Lockup Shops Association at the market, Uzuma Ogbonna, said more than N5 billion worth of property was lost.

He said 6,000 shops were burnt, while many others were vandalised by hoodlums who took advantage of the situation.

The head of fire service in the state, Ombogus Joshua, said his team received a distress call around 11.45pm,  blamed logistics challenge for the inability to move to the scene on time.

Meanwhile, Governor Abdullahi Sule has expressed sympathy over the fire incident.

Governor Sule who returned from his vacation in the US on Friday, visited the market on his way to Lafia from Abuja on Saturday morning to commiserate with the victims.

His senior special assistance on public affairs, Peter Ahemba, said the governor promised to assist the victims.

According to Ahemba, Governor Sule urged traders in all markets to take precautionary measures to forestall fire disasters.