It was a fearful at the popular Gunning Road near Abakpa market in Abakaliki when fire outbreak destroyed a shop belonging to the Ebonyi State correspondent of National Light Newspapers, Aaron Onuorah and 15 others, yesterday.
The inferno which started at about 3pm destroyed goods worth millions of naira.
When Vanguard got to the scene, the affected traders and their sympathizers were seen in clusters discussing the matter.
The goods destroyed in the fire outbreak ranged from electronic appliances to generators, wares, electrical installations, among others.
In a chat with Vanguard, one of the victims and a practicing journalist, Onuorah who lamented the level of destruction that took place in the area noted that the fire incident took everybody by surprise as it burnt the affected shops sporadically.
“Before I could realize what was happening and make effort to remove my goods, the fire burnt so fast that I couldn’t save anything. The goods I was able to remove from the fire were still affected. The goods in my shop are estimated at over 6 million naira”
Other traders affected by the fire lamented that the effort of the fire fighters did little or nothing to rescue the situation as the fire massively destroyed the goods belonging to traders.
Reacting, the chairman of the State Emergence Management Agency, SEMA, Evangelist Ephraim Onoye said that the fire fighters did their best to salvage the situation, adding that the street lights put in place by the present administration assisted in curtailing the activities of looters during the ugly incident.
Recall that last weekend, fire outbreak in Ishielu Local Government Area claimed eight lives.
