Fire outbreak in Abuja Market,.destroys goods worth N10m

A spot located at Quality Link Park, in Wuse Zone VII, Abuja was on Thursday gutted by fire, which destroyed over N10m worth of properties.

The Managing Director of the park, Mr. Chinemelu Onwughalu, described the incident as unfortunate, noting that more than N10m worth of property was destroyed by the inferno.


He recalled that a similar incident happened four years ago, saying that the cause of the fire had been traced to the same person.

He, however, commended the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service for its prompt response to emergency call to put out the fire.

A gardener, Mr. Abijah Britus, said the incident happened after he set some grass ablaze.

“I was asked to burn the grass by my elder in the church, known as Community of Hashem Worldwide, and I told him the fire can extend but he insisted that I should go ahead and burn the grass.”

The leader of the fire service team, Mr. Ijomah Azubuike, attributed the incident to “carelessness on the part of the young man burning grass close to the fence of the fun spot.”

He said, “He did not stay there to monitor the fire.

“This is what we call conventional fire, where smoke rises high above the fire level and breeze carries it sideways and then anywhere it touches it burns, especially this grass roof system.’’

He said two huts out of the six in the park were partially razed while some items were salvaged from the scene of the incident.

“For now, we cannot ascertain the cost of the materials damaged by the fire because we were not here before it broke out.

“We have to liaise with the owner of the building before we can ascertain the worth of what was destroyed,” he added.

Azubuike advised people to exercise caution during the dry season, especially when using fire to clear refuse.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )