Kano Market Infernos

In less than two weeks, three major markets in Kano witnessed fire incidents that destroyed goods worth hundreds of millions of Naira leaving traders and shop owners in a flood of wailing, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It began on March 1, 2023 with an inferno, which razed the famous Kurmi market. Following this was the March 8, 2023 fire disaster at the popular Abubakar Rimi Market, then came the latest fire at the Singer Market on March 13.

While the Kurmi market fire that occurred in the morning of Wednesday March 1 destroyed no fewer than 80 shops with goods worth millions of naira, no fewer than 19 shops and a mosque were completely razed by the fire disaster that gutted Abubakar Rimi market.

Just when the state thought it had had enough of market fires, traders were greeted by the unfortunate incident at the Singer Market, which destroyed property worth millions of naira.   Located along Ibrahim Taiwo Road, in Kano metropolis, the Singer Market is the largest foodstuff market in the state.

Because of its cosmopolitan and commercial nature, Kano as a centre of commerce, has continued to serve as the market for food crops from different parts of the north-especially the north central states of Niger, Kogi, Benue and Nasarawa which are the food baskets of the nation.

It is these foodstuffs that were wasted by the Singer market fire, razing several shops in the market. Sadly, the fire was controlled only after it blazed for about seven hours. One recurring trend in these fire incidents is the fact that they occurred in the early hours of the morning, at a time most shops were locked.

Could it be that the fire disasters were caused by the fact that traders could not observe simple rules like turning off electrical appliances when closing for business? What is the state of the wiring connections in these markets?

Like most Nigerians, we are wont to ask what firefighting measures had been put in place in all these markets and other public places in the state. There is no contesting the fact that while prompt response from the fire service is important, such cannot take the place if preventive measures were ignored or deliberately violated.

As a newspaper, we sympathise with traders and all those who incurred losses in these market infernos and urge the state government to, without any delay, unravel the remote and immediate cause(s) of these disasters. Even more importantly, in our opinion, it should put in place measures to forestall future occurrence.

Although the state fire service has, yet, to come out with a report on the probable and possible the causes of these infernos, it is heartening to note that the Governor, Umar Ganduje, has constituted a committee to unravel this mystery.

Good enough, Ganduje’s committee, according to a statement by the state commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Muhammad Garba, is saddled with the responsibility to determine the immediate cause of the inferno and ways of avoiding future occurrence.

Conscious of the need to provide succor to the victims, Garba listed the committee’s mandate to include assessing the damage and make recommendations on how the government can offer support and assistance to the affected traders.

The Kano state government must do all it takes to provide the needed assistance to victims of these incidents and, on time too, as any delay will be counterproductive. Fundamentally, in our view, traders and shop owners, especially those yet to embrace insurance, must see these frequent fire incidents as a wakeup call to insure their property and by doing so, get financial assistance for losses incurred.

In our considered opinion, now more than ever before, these recurring incidents of fire disaster underscore the need for stakeholders-the government, traders and officials of market associations- to devise means of ensuring enhanced disaster prevention and management strategies.

Also, there is an overarching need to strengthen and effectively equip the fire service in view of the increasing incidences of fire disaster. Only recently, the Federal Fire Service said property valued at more than N23.3 billion were lost to fire outbreaks in the country between October and December 2022.

A statistical report from the Fire Service showed that 649 fire outbreaks were recorded within the period under review, while properties valued at about N145.4bn were saved, 28 lives were lost while 40 others were rescued. Measures must be taken to curtail this!