From Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki

Members of the Hausa community in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, were thrown into anguish recently following the outbreak of fire, which razed properties and other valuables in one of the buildings at their settlement located on No 7, Momo Street.

The fire, according to the victims, started at about 4:00a.m on that fateful Thursday from a suspected spark from a wall socket where a refrigerator was plugged. They narrated that the electricity supply to the area at that time was not stable and might have resulted to the outbreak of the inferno, when there was a surge.

When Daily Sun visited the scene, the building was sill smouldering. All items in the bungalow of about 15 rooms, including shops in its frontage were burnt to ashes. The occupants of the building said that in a rough estimate, they lost valuables worth about N500 million to the fire. They claimed that cash of over N200 million belonging to a cattle trader who lived in the house were burnt to ashes.

One of the victims, Mr. Umaru Yakubu, narrated: “When the fire started, I looked around in our room to know if the smell of burning substance was coming from our room, but I didn’t see any fire. I came out of our house and looked around other rooms and that of our neighbours, but there was no sign. So, I went back to sleep.

“Shortly after, I heard neighbours screaming to the top of their voices that fire was raging. First thing I did was to rush into the room filled with heavy smoke. Lo and behold, there were two little children inside there and I had to rescue them first.

“Thereafter, I rushed to the Ebonyi State Fire Service Station which is a stone throw to this place to invite them. They delayed for over 15 minutes with the excuse that they were preparing to come.

“When they finally came, they sprayed water for two minutes and said that their water has finished. Residents in anger descended on them and they ran away.

“It was neighbours that brought water with buckets from their various homes to douse the raging inferno. At the end, not even a pin was taken out of the house.

“We lost many things. My brother who is a tailor lost his industrial machine and other machines. The clothing materials, including sewn ones were burnt. Another shop that drugs and books were sold in was burnt too.

“My younger brother, who trades in cattle, lost over N200 million to the fire. He had withdrawn the money from the bank the previous day hoping to go to market in the northern part of the country that same morning to buy cows.

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“He had told us that there was no bank in the area and that’s why he usually travelled with cash. The entire money burnt to ashes. In fact, it was so terrible on him that he has been behaving like someone who had lost his mind. I have not seen him since. Some neighbours took him away to safety.

“Again, a store in the building which was filled with goods was burnt completely.”

Another occupant, Hajia Bamba Hamajobia, while corroborating what Yakubu disclosed that the fire was caused by an electric spark where a refrigerator was plugged. She, however, called on the federal and state governments to come to their assistance as they would be faced with hunger in the coming days.

When contacted in his office located along Water Works Road, the Chief Fire Officer, Ebonyi State Fire Service, Mr. Eseni Raphael Ibiam, dismissed allegations leveled against his organization as falsehood. He claimed he personally led his team to the scene of the incident and on time too; alleging that the victims did not contact them on time:

“I was present at the scene of this incident. They did not come on time. Before we reached that place the whole building has been gutted by fire. That building is a chain building; there was no space.

“We deployed the first appliance followed by the water tender. So, this first appliance moved immediately they called them. It happened around 4:00a.m. We curtailed the fire using starvation method; that is, we stopped the fire from spreading.

“When the second water tender came to feed the first, the residents of the area started struggling over the hose (to protect their own building from catching fire) and our large pump was destroyed.

“We started using bucket to douse the fire and these people started fighting us. Some of my workers were wounded. I was wounded too. They used bucket to hit me. That’s what happened.” He disclosed that on December 31, 2017, three different places were gutted by fire but “we were able to handle them successfully.”

However, Daily Sun observed that many fire-fighting vehicles in the premises were in the state of moribund as some of their tyres were deflated while cobwebs were hanging on many of them. Some of the vehicles have broken glasses and a close look at the base of the tyres indicated that the vehicles have not moved for a long time as grasses have grown on their tracks.

Similarly, the entrance gate to the fire station was obviously an abandoned project while construction work on the security house attached to it has been abandoned and the ceilings not fixed. At the main office building, some of the offices have no windows and doors just as there were no desks and seats even for visitors to sit.

Ibiam responded: “That one is old vehicle (those ones are old vehicles). We are not using (them) that one.”