Enugu Motor Spare Parts Market, known as Tinker, has been gutted by fire, destroying goods worth millions of naira.
The fire also took the life of the State Fire Service’s watch officer, Engr. Chigozie Ugwu slumped and died after he and his squad had halted the fire.
According to Mike Nome, head of the Enugu Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association, the fire began in the early hours of Wednesday from a store.
Nome said:
“I got a call from one of our security men around midnight that our market was on fire. Our security men promptly rushed to stop it when they noticed the fire. But when they got to the shop, they noticed that it was further locked with burglary proof.
“Ask they were battling to break into the shop, the fire escalated into the next shop which operated restaurant and immediately a gas cylinder inside the restaurant got exploded, thereby spreading the fire to several shops.
“When the fire went beyond us, I called the state fire service around 1.00am and they promptly came in less than 15 minutes to stop the fire from spreading to other areas.”
He revealed that the fire completely damaged 40 vendors’ stores.
cc: Vanguard Ng
