Rivers state logo
Fire destroys shops, valuables in River state. On Friday, another fire destroyed stores and products worth millions of naira on Ebony Road in Port Harcourt’s Orazi axis, the Rivers State capital.
This is the seventh fire breakout in December alone.
One of the victims, only named as Okeke, bemoaned the destruction of all the merchandise in his shop.
“I’ve got two extinguishers.” I had to leave right away to see what I could do. I drained the contents from my extinguisher. I did the same thing with the second one; it was finished and the fire was still burning.
“We didn’t know in time because if I had known when it began and where it was, I would have used my extinguisher.” What I have here, N100 million, will not address the problem. “I’m tired,” he said.
Another casualty, Christian Simon, who owns a supply store, told reporters that the shop owners had no idea what caused the fire.
He requested that the state government intervene to help them cope with their losses.
“I was just finishing up in my shop when I heard about the fire in my neighbor’s shop.” I was perplexed and didn’t know where to begin. Friends came around to help me haul out most of these items after the fire had spread.
“I’m not sure where to begin when I speak to you. “Everything was burned down, including the roof, shops, and walls,” he explained.
According to an eyewitness, store owners and the Shell Fire Service eventually brought the situation under control and successfully extinguished the blaze.
Meanwhile, Mrs Garba Affiong, the Controller of the Federal Fire Service in Rivers State, said the command is dealing with a lack of equipment and inadequate fire lights.
She did, however, appeal to the state government to assist the command in increasing its efficiency.
“Not that we can’t work; we’re working very hard,” she explained, “but our main challenge is inadequate equipment.”
“I’ve informed my headquarters that we require additional appliances.” We only have one appliance in the entire state of Rivers. That appliance was being serviced two weeks ago. That’s why we couldn’t respond to the fire that broke out in that multi-story structure. I talked with the Governor and told him that we couldn’t operate the state with only one appliance.”