About 15 stores with items worth millions of naira have been entirely leveled by fire on Agbani Road in the Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State,
According to information obtained by our journalist, the event occurred on Monday night.
The affected stores were situated in the well-known Afor Awkunanaw Market, also called Garriki Market.
At around 11 p.m. on Monday, eyewitnesses told our correspondent that a retail center containing electrical stores, hair salons, phone accessories, a café, and motor/motorcycle components caught fire.
One of the witnesses, who identified himself as Onyebuchi Omerie, said that if not for the quick action of nearby people who rushed to the scene 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 blaze that destroyed the retail center began as a fire started by someone lighting trash in the gutter, but it quickly expanded and attacked the structure.
The resident said; “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.
He added, “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.”
When the Fire Service personnel came, they could not put out the fire because they lacked enough water, according to him.
“It was people that started bringing water from everywhere that were able to contain the fire from consuming the entire building,” he recounted.
