Residents of Trademore Estate located at Lugbe area of Abuja were on Monday thrown into shock and confusion as the market located inside the estate was gutted by fire in the early hours of Monday.
The fire reportedly started around 3:30 am shortly after the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) restored power supply and razed the market before emergency services could respond.
Though the exact cause of the fire remains unknown, eyewitnesses suspect that the incident may be linked to electrical issues.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel confirmed the incident to journalists on Monday.
“I was awoken by calls as early as around 4 am concerning the fire at the market, at the Trademore market,” the spokesperson said.
“I put calls across to our contacts. In fact, when I called our contact centre, they confirmed to me that they had received similar alerts.”
Ezekiel said personnel of the fire service has put out the conflagration.
“And we were trying to reach the fire service. So, thank God, we were able to mobilise and the fire service arrived at the spot and they have put out the fire,” he added.
“The incident happened this morning, I was alerted around 4-5am, a few minutes to 5 o’clock.”
The NEMA spokesperson added that he cannot confirm if there were casualties, saying he is currently out of Abuja on an assignment to Sokoto State.
A resident who identified himself as Joe, said his attention was drawn to the incident at about 4 a.m.
“We do not yet know the cause of the fire, but we cannot rule out an electrical issue. We are trying to reach both the Federal Fire Service and the Federal Capital Territory FCT Fire Service. The situation is tense,” he said.
Joe said residents were later able to alert the fire service at the Dunamis Church, and they arrived at about 5 a.m.
He later confirmed to reporters that the fire had been put out.
“Two hours after the fire started, men of the Federal Fire Service from EFCC and Sauka Station have finally extinguished the fire,” he said.
