By Uche Eke

Goods and property worth millions of naira have been destroyed after a fire which gutted a provision shop and a laundry shop at Ezinifite Village, Okpuno, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The inferno which was said to have started around half past 11pm Tuesday night, lasted till around 3am on Wednesday when the Anambra state fire service came and put it off.

Narrating her ordeal, the owner of the provision shop, Mrs Chika Obasi said she went to Eke Awka market and bought goods worth over Two million naira and stocked her shop before leaving for her home around half past nine in the evening.

Mrs Obasi who said she got a distress call later informing her that her shop was being consumed by fire, estimated the loss to be over nine million naira.

She lamented that all her struggle and life savings have been gutted by fire and that she does not know where to go from there or what to do.

The owner of the laundry shop, Mr John Vincent whose wife put to bed recently, regretted that his customers’ clothes in the shop were burnt to ashes though his washing machine and generator were rescued by neighbours before he could get to the scene.

The owner of the building, Pastor Henry Obidimma explained that they had gone to bed when they started hearing sounds and thought that armed robbers had invaded the area, until they started hearing people shouting fire, and rushed out to behold the unfortunate incident.

According to him, no one could ascertain the cause of the inferno as there was no electricity in the area until around four 0′ clock in the morning , leaving them to wonder what could have triggered the mysterious fire.

In an interview with Radio Nigeria , the Fire Chief , Anambra State fire Service , Mr Chukwudi Chiketa said his men had gone to put off a fire outbreak that occurred in a building along Abakaliki Street before getting to know that there was also another incident at Ezinifite Okpuno.

Mr Chiketa who regretted the two incidents said that of Abakaliki Street was caused by power surge while the fire incident at Okpuno remained unknown.

He therefore urged residents to always be safety conscious by putting off all electrical appliances in their shops or offices before leaving home.

The Fire Chief also advised the people to have a functional fire extinguisher that would enable them contain fire outbreak at early stage as well as being swift in contacting fire service whenever there is a fire incident.