Following a gas explosion from a fire occurrence at a set of apartments at Awkwuzu Street in the Diobu neighbourhood of Mile One in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, goods and property worth millions of naira were destroyed.
Due to the explosion’s ferocity, more than 20 residents of the building at 9 Awkwuzu Street had to be relocated.
While many of the afflicted neighbours helplessly watched the raging fire consume their property, our correspondent saw that a thick black smoke was billowing into the atmosphere.
According to eyewitnesses, a malfunctioning gas from one of the rooms erupted at around 8am and spread to the other flats, starting the fire.
The fire started on the roof of a woman who left her cooking gas on and went to the hospital, according to one of the affected residents who provided her name as Esther.
She said the woman didn’t know she hadn’t fully turned the gas off before leaving home, despite the fact that the camp gas was malfunctioning.
No one inside the building was able to save any belongings because of how quickly the inferno spread, the woman claimed, describing the incident in an emotive tone.
She stated, “Somebody, a woman, unknowingly left her gas on. You know how this camp gas behave when the regulator is bad.
“Probably, she turned it off thinking it was off but I think she didn’t observe it well. So she took it inside her apartment, locked the door and left for the clinic.
“Before people could realise, it had burnt and exploded. That was the cause of the fire. Unfortunately nobody was able to pick anything out of the place. The place was completely razed.”
Another resident said it was unfortunate that for nearly two hours that the fire was on, firefighters did not show up to try to put it out.
“No fire service came, either from the state or federal. If they came at least some people would have rescued some valuables of other property,” he lamented.
In addition to the loss of buildings and personal belongings, he claimed that five businesses owned by merchants in front of the building were also destroyed by the fire.
When the fire first started, police officers from the Mile One Division were on the ground to make sure that hoodlums didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to rob individuals of their belongings, according to our correspondent who visited the location.
Those in the next building hastily carried some precious belongings out of fear that the fire would spread in their way, drawing sympathy and observers, some of whom were just partially dressed.
The Federal Fire Service commander for Rivers State, Abdul Alfa, acknowledged being made aware of the occurrence but expressed sadness that his troops were unable to reach the location because their operational vehicles were being serviced.
Despite expressing sympathy to the affected residents, he said that, while the federal fire department, which he oversaw, responded to every distress call of that sort, it was constrained by the state of its trucks.
Alfa stated, “Not that we didn’t turn up. The problem is that our vehicles are of the road. They are under maintenance.
“But I tried to call the fire department from some of the companies here in Port Harcourt to see how they can assist. If our vehicles are in order what are waiting for? It is our job and we don’t waste time in responding to such distress calls because we know it is an emergency situation.”
