Mr Peter Oba, Chairman Lot 1, a section at the Margaret Umahi International market, Abakaliki, says Wednesday’s fire gutted about three warehouses of a storey building in the state capital.
Oba disclosed this to journalists at the scene of the incident.
The Chairman, who expressed worry over the incident, said that he received a distress call at about 3 am over the inferno and alerted the state and federal fire services.
He said that fire fighters were deplored immediately with trucks to the scene.
He estimated that goods lost in the inferno are worth millions of Naira.
“The fire partly affected the building and goods on the first and ground floors of the building.
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“It destroyed warehouses where food items like noodles, tomatoes, macaroni and other stuffs in cartons are stored,” Oba said.
Mr Walter Ibiam, Assistant superintendent and Head of Operation, Federal Fire Service, said that the cause of the inferno could not be ascertained at the moment.
“We arrived at the scene of the incident after an hour and 30 minutes of the fire because they did not alert us on time, it is a challenge.
“Imagine, even with all the sensitisation of the residents, to have emergency numbers of fire fighters in case of fire incident, but still they did not call us on time,” he lamented.
He advised the general public to always take safety measures as a priority.
He further called on government to assist in providing chemicals and other essentials for fighting fire.