By Christopher Oji
There is pandemonium yet at Dosumu, Idumota, Lagos, as fire razed down houses and destroyed property worth millions.
The street used for market that is densely populated was in total confusion as people scampered for safety
Already, five buildings have been consumed in the early morning inferno, while a two-story building has collapsed due to the impact of the fire .
The fire which started from the second floor of a four story building later spread to four other houses.
One of the affected buildings had collapsed while emergency Workers from the National Emergency Management Agency (NENA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA)and fire fighters were battling with the fire.
Policemen from Adeniji Adele police station and Lion building cordoned off the area to prevent street urchins from looting victims belongings.
An unconfirmed report has it that some persons sustained fire burns while trying to salvage their belongings.
Territorial Coordinator of NEMA in South-West Region, Ibrahim Farinloye, said emergency workers were having serious challenges over scarcity of water.
“Fire trucks go as far as Guinness to source for water. Three pieces of four storey buildings and one of the five Storey building are engulfed in the fire. One of the four storey building had collapsed under the intensity of the fire .
“We have appealed to the various traders’ associations to consider safety ahead of security of their wares as well as accepting Insurance policy.
“NEMA and other stakeholders had taken insurance companies to them to buy into the policy or any of their choice, only few took to the policy before they stopped.
“ We had urged them to nominate few market residents/neighbourhood young men to be trained as fire/disaster marshal or Vanguards free of charge but they refused.There is no ground here.The smoke is still on.
Accessing the shops is very difficult as all the shops are locked up with no access to the source of the fire”
A trader, Mike Orji, told our Correspondent that the fire started at about 9:30 am,” I was on my way to the Market when my friend called me that the worst has happened. I asked what happened and he told me that there was fire outbreak in our shop. My warehouse has been razed. There is nothing to salvage and this happened during this economic hardship. How do we survive this tragedy?”.