Early morning inferno on Christmas day wreaked havoc in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State, when fire engullfed shops at the popular Market Square area of the town, destroying goods worth millions of naira.
The devastating inferno which started between 8:30am and 9:00am is suspected to have been caused by electric spark from BEDC electric cables over the stores.
Over 14 stores affected by the fire incident included Clothes Shops, Book Shop, DVD/CD Shops, Catering Shop, Phone Shops and others.
Though private water tankers were deployed to the scene, not much could be salvaged, as the fire had reduced most of the shops to rubbles.
The ensuing panic forced neighbouring shop owners to rush to their shops to evacuate goods from their stores for fear of the fire spreading to their shops.
It was gathered that the owner the clothes shop which was heavily affected by the fire was currently hospitalized as a result of the shock from the news of the incident.
One of the sympathizers, Alice Ehimen Described the fire incident as devastating, lamenting that the livelihood of the victims were destroyed.
She expressed sadness that there were no good rescue operations to put the fire, hence advised the government to urgently revamp the various fire fighting stations in all the local government of the state
Another sympathiser, Peter Dave suggested to government that part of revenue generated from markets and shops should be deployed into providing fire fighting equipments, to forestall future occurrence.
Meanwhile, Acting Chairman and Head of Local Government Administration (HOLGA) of Esan West Local Government Area, Emmanuel Ebhadode sympathized with the victims of the inferno, and disclosed that the local government council employed the services of private water vendors who went to the scene with their tankers.
He revealed also that the council was currently compiling the names of the shop owners and the worth of goods destroyed by the fire, to be sent to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for assistance.
He stated that the council was similarly having consultations with the agency to workout the possibility of having a fire fighting station in Ekpoma.
