A fire incident that occurred at early hours of Friday, 5th March, 2021, at Amobi plastic market within the vicinity of Ochanja Market, Anambra state, razed five buildings housing plastic and rubber footwears; and was said to have destroyed goods worth millions of naira.
The cause of the fire was not immediately ascertained, however sources at the scene told reporters that a suspected electricity surge caused the fire incident because it started immediately PHCN restored power to the area early Saturday morning.
An anonymous witness, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the raging fire was discovered at about 2:00a.m at a plaza section of the market. According to an eyewitness, the fire started from a building housing rubber foot wares and plastics, before spreading to other nearby buildings, destroying goods and properties valued in millions of naira.
Some Shop owners and neighbours at the scene could do little to quench the fire as its intensity was so much and it was spreading quickly. People living in the adjoining houses ran out from their homes as the fire spread rapidly. They resorted to salvaging some of their goods and properties from the adjoining houses in case it spread to those areas. A source said residents and later, police officers, assisted to quell the fire using buckets of water until fire fighters from the state Fire Service arrived minutes later to put out the inferno.
Some traders and shop owners were spotted wailing in anguish as they watched the means of their livelihood being razed by the inferno as a few others were seen picking what was left from the rubble. Many lamented about the repeated cases of fire disaster in the area within a short period of time and called for serious investigations to unravel the cause with a view to checking the menace. However, there was no reported case of lost life or injuries during the incident.
