Fire guts Ibadan market, destroys over 600shops

Tragedy struck on Friday night as goods worth over
one billion naira were destroyed in an inferno which
ravaged parts of popular Aleshinloye market in
Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. The inferno was
successfully put out early morning yesterday.
We learnt that mostly affected were
shops dealing mainly in jewelleries, fabrics, shoes,
handbags and
Tragedy struck on Friday night as goods worth over
one billion naira were destroyed in an inferno which
ravaged parts of popular Aleshinloye market in Ibadan,
the Oyo State capital. The inferno was successfully put
out early morning yesterday.
mostly affected were shops dealing mainly in
jewelleries, fabrics, shoes, handbags and travel bags
as well as wrist watches, among others. While
speaking with journalists, one of the traders affected
by the inferno, Mr. Adeoye Soyemi, who deals in
jewelleries, said no fewer than 600 shops were affected
in the inferno, putting his own loss at close to N1
million. According to him, the fire started as a result of
power surge which affected a refrigerator inside one of
the affected shops. It was however gathered that when
the fire initially started, five shops were affected while
the private night guards on duty alerted men of Oyo
State Fire Service. We learnt that the fire
fighters could however not get enough water to
contain the fire, a development which worsened the
situation. During a visit to the market, yesterday, it was
a sad tale for many of the traders who got to know of
the incident as late as midnight as hoodlums had
already vandalized and stolen their goods before
getting to the market. Another trader, who simply gave
his name as Samuel, said this would be the second
time he would be a victim of fire incident in the market
as he put his loss at close to N750,000. “On March 9,
2004, this market experienced similar fire incident and
I suffered a loss. I just filled my shop and see me
now”, he lamented, while being consoled by
sympathisers. As at filling this report, scores of
affected traders were compiling their names and items
lost to the inferno, while sympathisers still thronged
the market.