26th January, 2016
Femi Adi/Kaduna
Fire outbreak that razed down over 500 makeshift shops at Kaduna Railway Station Market in the early hours of Tuesday killed a boy and destroyed property worth millions.
According to an eyewitness, the fire which started from one of the clothing shops around 2 a.m. today, became uncontrollable as the winds aided combustion.
“All attempts to extinguish the fire were frustrated by inability to get water to quench the raging fire,” he narrated.
Another eyewitness, Baba Mohammed, is one of the security guards at the market who said the fire might have been caused by burning fire caused by some boys who sleep in shops at the market.
“Unfortunately, all efforts to rescue one of the boys trapped in a clothing shop at the market were unsuccessful and the boy died,” Mohammed said.
The fire fighters came to the rescue at about 3 a.m. after the entire temporary shops, mostly made of planks and zinc, were burnt down.
Other witnesses attributed the cause to electrical fault. Our correspondent later gathered that the fire was caused by left over fire which affected a shop near it.
The State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Zakari, said SEMA officials are conducting an assessment to confirm the immediate and remote cause of what he termed “unfortunate fire incident”.
Meanwhile , as at the time of filing this report, Kaduna Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai was on his way to the market to sympathise with the traders.