A fire at the old timber market along Wetheral road in Owerri, the Imo State capital has destroyed vehicles, shops and equipment worth millions of naira.
Vanguard reported that the fire outbreak started in the early hours of Saturday, at around 2am, citing an eyewitness.
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Speculations on the cause of the fire incident pointed to an electrical fault by some people, and burning of dustbins around the area by some other people.
One of the eyewitnesses who introduced himself as Mr Ike said: “The fire started burning around 2 am on Saturday. At first, we saw a small fire and we thought it was somebody burning a refuse dump. After about 30 minutes we started hearing explosions from different areas inside the market.
“And it became a large fire. It burnt the transformer. It burnt the vehicles. The fire burnt the furniture, the shops were completely razed down. Many properties were destroyed. We lost a lot of things. I work around the market and make some money from assisting in doing one or two jobs.”
Some sympathizers were seen at the scene trying to extinguish the fire, some were seen evacuating the debris, while scavengers were on hand to buy the damaged roofs, irons, and other items for their business.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
