15 stores on Agbani Road in Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State, that had commodities worth millions of naira have been entirely destroyed in a fire outbreak.
It was gathered that the event took place on Monday night.
At the well-known Afor Awkunanaw Market, also called Garriki Market, were the damaged stores.
A shopping center that contained electrical stores, hair salons, phone accessories, a cafeteria, and motor/motorcycle parts caught fire at around 11 p.m. on Monday.
Onyebuchi Omerie, one of the witnesses, claimed that if locals hadn’t hurried to the scene in time to assist in putting out the raging inferno, the entire structure would have been entirely destroyed.
Despite the fact that no one was able to pinpoint the exact cause of the blaze, Omerie said that according to a number of stories, the fire that destroyed the shopping center began as a fire started from the refuse in the gutter that someone had lit before spreading to the building.
“I don’t know actually what caused the fire incident. I heard that someone set fire to a refuse in the gutter when they closed for business yesterday and the fire spread and caught the building that housed the shops. It was also said that the fire was caused by a Suya seller who probably did not put out the fire from his oven well,” a resident said.
He claimed that he lived nearby and that when he smelled the fumes, he initially believed that his generator was causing the smoke before realizing that the fire was in the stores.
“I live nearby. When I perceived the smell in the night around ten or eleven in the night, I thought it was my generator but when I came out to find out, I saw the shops in flame,” the resident said.
He also said that when the Fire Service personnel came, they could not put out the fire because they lacked enough water.
“It was people that started bringing water from everywhere that were able to contain the fire from consuming the entire building,” he also said.
Some sympathizers were seen at the scene of the tragedy, which was on Agbani Road right across from Akwuke Junction, trying to save some items from the rubble while others gawked in horror at the horrific event.
