In an early Saturday morning fire in Oja Tuntun, Osun State’s largest market, 17 stores were damaged and products worth millions of naira were lost.
Between July 2019 and December 2020, this market had experienced three fire incidents which destroyed many shops and goods.
Although the cause of the current market fire is unknown, Adekunle Ibrahim, the spokesperson for the Osun State Fire Service, told our correspondent that firemen received a distress call from a resident living near the market about 12:30 a.m.
Ibrahim disclosed that when firemen arrived at the scene, the raging fire had affected a building that has 16 shops and a container within the market, adding that a team from the fire unit of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, also joined the Osun firemen and prevented escalation.
He said, “Ile-Ife Zonal Fire Station was informed about a fire incident at Olulere new market, Oja tuntun in Ile-Ife at about 00:30 hours on Saturday 11th November, 2023.
“Our men met the fire well alight and put out the fire with assistance from the OAU Fire Unit. Property saved was worth over N500 million, but a block which has a total of 16 shops and one container, making a total of 17 shops that were affected.”
Speaking in a similar vein, the Public Relations Officer of the Osun Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kehinde Adeleke, said operatives of the command were on guard at the scene to prevent looting, as firemen battled to halt the spread of the fire to other parts of the market.