UPDATED: Fire guts Abuja market, razes 40 shops

A section of the popular Kaura Modern Market, located opposite the Prince and Princess market in the Kaura District of Abuja, was on Friday night gutted by fire.

The fire, which reportedly started at about 11 pm on Friday, razed about 40 shops, with items such as foodstuff, appliances and household items, lost in the inferno.

Confirming the incident, the Acting Director of the FCT Fire Service, Amiola Adebayo, in a report shared with our correspondent on Saturday, stated that the fire was caused by an electrical spark on a power change-over installed in one of the shops, further aggravated by a generator kept inside the shop where the fire started.

The report further stated that the incident was called in at 11:11 pm and was eventually put out at 1:59 am by combined teams of the FCT and Federal Fire Service

The report reads as follows “Property involved; Open Market block that comprises 39 shops of foodstuffs. Items lost: foodstuffs, generators, refrigerators, fruits, umbrellas, electrical appliances, household items, and some parts of the roof.

“Cause of fire: Electrical spark on a power change-over installed in one of the shops. The fire was put under control by the combined teams of the FCT fire service and Federal fire. Fire under control at 1:59 am.”

The Director however did not state whether or not there had been any loss of lives or injuries to persons as a result of the incident.

Responding to claims that the Fire Service arrived late at the scene of the incident, Adebayo explained that the network challenges from service providers made the service hard to reach, stating however that officers arrived at the scene between 10-12 minutes after getting the call.

“The only challenge we had was network. They couldn’t reach us on time. I was there myself. When they called, I had to mobilise the Games Village service and in about 10-12 minutes they were there. But you know to a person at the scene, one minute would have felt like a long time. And then the Asokoro unit joined about 15 minutes after”, he said.