Fire razes shops in Gwagwalada main market

A mid-night fire gutted part of Gwagwalada main market and destroyed goods worth millions of naira.

A trader, Haliru Usman, said the incident happened around 1:25am yesterday, while he was sleeping at home.

He said he received a phone call that the market was being razed and he rushed to the market to discover that 10 shops were already gutted by fire but that he still alerted fire fighters.

He said his shop was not affected much by the inferno, as the fire fighters responded promptly and put out the fire, adding that some residents close to the market also brought detergents inside buckets to help in putting out the fire.

He said nobody knows the cause of the fire as the entire market was shut down since last week following government directive to close markets as a measure to contain coronavirus.

City News learnt that provision/ cosmetics shops were worst hit by the fire.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the council, Adamu Mustapha, has visited the market and sympathized with traders whose shops were affected by the fire as well as the market management.

The chairman assured the affected shop owners of his administration’s commitment to ensuring that the market remains a safe place for business, saying a committee will be set up to ascertain the level of damage with a view to assisting the victims.

Similarly, two apartments were also razed down by fire on Saturday afternoon in Anguwar Sokodabo in Abaji metropolis.

A victim, Muhammed Sani Galadima, said the incident happened around 1:48 pm when he was in the mosque praying.

He said before he arrived home, all the viable property, which he said included clothes, mattresses, cushion, ceiling fans, television and other electronic gadgets were burnt down.

He said his wife was also not at home when the fire incident happened, saying fire fighters later came to put out the fire, even as he said he and his neighbor could not retrieve any valuables from the apartments.