By Bisola Adeyemo
Hundreds of property worth millions of naira have been destroyed as fire engulfeda timber market in port Harcourt, leaving several traders devastated.
Victims lamented that the fire which started at a spot in the Timber Market from yet unknown causes raged from 11 pm Wednesday through the dawn of Thursday.
Isaac Amewhule, Chairman, Marine Base Timber Market, said, “This timber market fire has happened more than five times now and each time it happens we are set back in pains that many people hardly recover from.
“We don’t actually know the cause of the fire because for some time now, we don’t use public power. We rely on generators to run our machines from 7 am to 6 pm. We really don’t know what to do now”.
In the past five days, there was a fire outbreak at Bishop Okoye Street in Diobe, Port Harcourt, where several shops loaded with goods were razed.
The second one happened at the Ogbum-Nabali area of Port Harcourt where over 20 shanties were destroyed rendering several residents homeless.
According to the Vanguard, the state and federal fire fighting authorities in Port Harcourt have been in a blame game with victims of the Marine Base Timber Market fire over failure to arrest the situation before it got out of hand.