On Saturday, August 1, 2020, a raving inferno razed through Ladipo Market, the famous vehicle spare parts hub in Lagos, leaving relics of destruction with at least 30 shops reportedly destroyed.
The Lagos State Emergency, Management Agency (LASEMA) revealed that the fire which broke out at 1pm from a nearby shop dealing in mattresses destroyed a single storey building with six rooms and four shops; five bungalows with 26 shops; and a property housing three-bedroom apartments.
There is no trophy for guessing that these buildings and goods lost to the fire are worth millions of Naira. The owners are going to be starting from ground zero because according to the LASEMA, the affected buildings were demolished to prevent any secondary incidents. It is tough to imagine how to start afresh in this trying economic times.
What is clear to every iota of the imagination is that the Ladipo market inferno and the traders’ losses are recurring decimal in Nigeria’s marketplace. These destructive patterns have been repeated at key markets over the last three years across the country. The world-famous Balogun Market, for instance, has witnessed fire disasters consistently over the last three years. Other prominent markets like the Amu Plank market; the Building Material Hub in Mushin, Lagos; Santana market in Benin, Edo state, and Upper Iweka Market in Onitsha have all lost billions of Naira to fire outbreaks.
Records of fire disasters from 2017 to 2019 obtained from Lagos, Osun, Kano, and Plateau states fire services revealed that the states lost a combined sum of N55.4bn to fires while 664 persons died.
What is disturbing about these outcomes is that business owners have now consistently lost their lives and their investments to these fires year on year, and they continue to reboot and start afresh with a dense psychological scar. The brutal truth is that some never gather enough resources to begin again; they slip into the vulnerable cycle of poverty.
But what must bother everyone is that these fires are not entirely contained to the market perimeters, they spread to adjoining buildings and households neighbouring these places. These incidental victims lose the things and the ones they love to an incidence they have no understanding of how it all started. Put it differently; anyone can be a victim of these fire incidents whether they are occurring in the marketplace or not.
The question is, what should the traders and households who fire crawled into their properties and destroyed their sweat and blood, do? Leave the markets or live about 10-kilometre radius outside of them? Get fire extinguishers and have in-house fire marshals trained and ready to fight the fires before they reach your properties? All these arrangements may still fail.
The right and smart way to assurance is to have an insurance policy that will give you the peace of mind knowing that whatever happens in the course of running your business, or home, you would be compensated. You would not have to be at the mercy of others in order to survive.
Leadway Assurance, an authority in the insurance industry, with a reputation in value creation for over five decades, has designed innovative insurance policies in this regard to ensure your business and households are in safe hands, come rain or shine.
Leadway’s Fire insurance is one that covers you and your businesses. It provides support to your business by covering you against the risk of losing your business assets to fire. This policy will you give you the needed peace of mind over your business.
Make the smartest decision today, call our professional advisors for additional information via our virtual communication channels – 08088578050, Social Media handles @LeadwayAssurance on Facebook & Instagram and @Leadwayinsure on Twitter or send an email to [email protected]. You can also request a call back from an experienced insurance advisor by visiting www.leadway.com/call-me
