By Asuquo Cletus
A fire outbreak has razed several shops at Ika Ika along Mbukpa Street in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State, destroying goods worth millions of naira and leaving traders devastated.
The incident, which occurred late on Thursday night, was said to have started from the upper part of the affected building and spread downward before residents could contain it. Although no life was lost, shop owners said the inferno wiped out their means of livelihood.
Some of the affected traders, including Ada Oke and Elizabeth Prince, who spoke separately with our correspondent, said they had locked up their shops around 11:30 p.m. and gone home before the fire broke out.
โWe closed our shops around 11 p.m. and went home. Early this morning, I received a call that my shop was on fire. By the time I arrived, everything had already been burnt,โ they said.
According to them, the fire destroyed two deep freezers, bags of rice, beans, grains, dairy products, books and other provisions stocked in December at an estimated cost of about โฆ1.5 million, funds they said were raised through personal contributions.
โEverything in my shop is gone. Even the container where I kept money was burnt with the money inside. I had not removed even a pin from the goods,โ they lamented.
They estimated their total loss, including the shop structure and equipment, at over โฆ4 million, adding that they had no idea how the fire started.
An eyewitness told Primetime News that the fire was noticed shortly after midnight following distress calls by residents, prompting frantic efforts to prevent it from spreading further.
โWe fetched water with buckets and used detergent and sand. Everybody came out to help because we didnโt know what else to do,โ the eyewitness said.
It was also learnt that residents eventually brought the fire under control before it spread to other buildings in the area.
The affected traders appealed to the Cross River State Government, emergency agencies, insurance bodies and well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid.
โI am begging for help from the Government House and any agency or organisation that can assist me to rebuild my shop. January is already very difficult,โ one of the traders pleaded.
As of the time of filing this report, the cause of the fire had yet to be officially determined.
Efforts to reach officials of the Cross River State Fire Service proved abortive, as the Director-General of the agency, Dennis Ajom, did not respond to repeated phone calls.
