From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
A gym operator sustained injuries while multi million naira worth of properties were destroyed following a mysterious early morning fire that engulfed the Spa and multipurpose conference hall of Soprom Hotel, Onitsha.
The fire, whose source and cause remains unknown started around 4am yesterday, at Soprom, the only seven-star hotel in the commercial city of Onitsha, located at Ogbatuluenyi Drive, 3-3 Onitsha; and when the dust finally settled after over four hours, the expansive conference hall housing different sections of spa, sauna, barbing salon and make-over studios, among others were destroyed.
The hotel Consultant, Chinedu Agu, who spoke with Daily Sun on the scene, said they closed the business of the previous day in the section around 10pm, while focusing on the lodging, restaurant and club sections, but were woken by the fire alarm around early morning of next day.
Putting the extent of loss in the inferno to about N700 million, he lamented that a series of efforts made to salvage the situation by alerting men of the state fire service failed because they could not respond, attributing their inability to faulty vehicles.
Agu said it was the Asaba, Delta State Fire Service that eventually responded around 7am, when the fire has ravaged the place for over three hours and they had exhausted their self help efforts through the use of hydrants, fire extinguishers and fetching water to douse the fire from their swimming pool and paid tanker drivers.
Chairman of the hotel, Chief Abuadimma Okafor, who expressed disappointment over the zero response of Anambra Fire Service, still expressed gratitude to God and the public who joined in rescue efforts to ensure that the fire did not extend to the main building housing guests in the hotel.
Popular transporter and businessman, Chief G. U. Okeke, while empathising with the hotel proprietor, called for a holistic re-energising of the public rapid response arm of the state government, towards reducing casualties, fatalities and losses at any eventual natural disaster in the state.