A fire officer was killed in a fire at the Auto Parts Market, Coal-Camp in Enugu State’s Enugu North Local Government Area.
Confirming the incident on Wednesday, the Director of Enugu State Fire Service, Mr Okwudili Ohaa, said the staff slumped and died after successfully stopping the fire that broke out in the Enugu Motor Spare Parts Market, known as Tinker.
Ohaa claimed that the firemen arrived at the area at about 1.15 a.m. with three fire trucks to put out the fire that started about midnight Wednesday from a market shop.
The cause of the fire was not disclosed by the fire chief.
The fire was said to have damaged goods worth millions of naira before it was successfully put out by the late staff and his team who unfortunately died after the battle.
“He was a dedicated officer, who loved to lead by example. He was my best fire officer. He was not actually supposed to come to work because he was still recuperating from an illness but due to his passion for the job, he decided to join the team,” he stated.
“We have been able to quench the outbreak that took us more than two hours. It was a huge one.”
Meanwhile, the President, Enugu Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association, Mike Nome, said the security officers in the market would have stopped the fire if the shop was not locked with a burglar-proof.
“I got a call from one of our security men around midnight that our market was on fire. Our security men promptly rushed to stop it when they noticed the fire. But when they got to the shop, they noticed that it was further locked with burglar proof.
“As they were battling to break into the shop, the fire escalated into the next shop which operated a restaurant and immediately a gas cylinder inside the restaurant exploded, thereby spreading the fire to several shops.
“When the fire went beyond us, I called the state fire service around 1.00 am and they promptly came in less than 15 minutes to stop the fire from spreading to other areas,” Nome said.