Saturday night was a tragedy to traders in Asaba wood market when fire gutted the popular Timber Market which is located behind Chiedu Okoh Plaza, along the Onitsha/Asaba Expressway.
IgbereTV gathered that the inferno started by 8:00p.m Saturday night.
An eyewitness said the fire started from a cold room behind the timber market. “I was coming back home around 9p.m when I saw the fire”.
He revealed that an electric spark which started from the cold room was responsible for the market inferno, where goods worth over N60 million were destroyed.
Another account stated that the spark was from the electric pole which set fire on the sawdust at the market and, since it was in the night, the fire entered some of the piled woods and expanded.
Though it was said that the Delta State Fire Service officials were on the ground, they could not achieve much as the fire was said to be beyond them.
Also speaking to IgbereTV, a shop owner in the market, blamed the leadership of the market for allowing the cold room to stay in such a place.
“We have had issues with the cold room several times, it has destroyed the transformer on several occasions,” he stated.
One of the owners of the burnt shops, Victor Okeke, said he came back from his village after hearing about the incident in the early hours of Sunday.
Although he said he could not ascertain the number of shops that were affected, he revealed that most shop owners were not yet aware of the situation as they had travelled for Christmas and New Year.
When contacted, Michael Awunor, chairman, Anioma Building Materials and Timber Dealers Association, lamented that they lost over N60 million worth of goods.
He said that about 7:15p.m he got a call from one Pastor that there was a serious spark on the electric pole which forced him to travel down to Asaba.
“I immediately put a call to BEDC and fire service men, while BEDC switched off the light, the fire service men equally rushed down but could not do anything until the second truck came and they tried their best but it could not yield result,’ he said.
According to him, all the goods stocked for January and February sales were gone.
He expressed displeasure over the incident and pleaded with government to come to the aid of victims of the fire incident as he said the victims were handicapped financially.
On the cause of the fire, he disagreed with the cold room narrative, stating that the cold room had not started working while the other one had not been installed, insisting that the fire was from the pole.
