• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Fire guts Ibadan fabrics market

Fire guts Ibadan fabrics market

An early morning fire, on Monday, destroyed goods worth millions of naira at the Bola Ige International Market, new Gbagi Ibadan, Oyo State.

The fire outbreak which started at about 7am, razed six shops fully loaded with different types of fabrics. No life was, however, lost to the inferno.

Ganiyu Adebayo, the chairman of the market, confirmed that the fire began at about 7:00am and the fire service station in the market was alerted and they responded promptly to put out the inferno.

“I was at home this morning when they called and informed me that there was a fire outbreak at the market. I was told that a woman lit a candle in her shop early this morning and did not put it out before she closed the shop.

“The firefighters did very well, they prevented the inferno from spreading to other parts of the market,” he added.

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Also confirming the incident, Rasheed Oladepo, a member of the market council of elders, explained what caused the fire incident, saying, “It’s not electrical appliances that caused the fire outbreak, according to the reports we got from those that witnessed it. They told us that the shop that caused the fire had opened as early as 7:00am, that the owner of the shop lit a candle for prayers and left it there till it spread out.”

He advised traders in the market to be careful and conscious while they seek spiritual help so as not to affect others and as well stop cooking food in their shops in order to prevent fire disasters.

Meanwhile, the Oyo State government has commiserated with traders that lost their property in the incident.

Olasunkanmi Olaleye, the commissioner for trade, industry investment and cooperatives, who visited the scene of the incident, commiserated with the affected traders. Olaleye, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Bunmi Babalola, thanked God that lives were not lost but described the incident as preventable.

He later invited the market executives to a meeting with the ministry’s management for Tuesday.