Fire guts Abuja building materials market

Shop owners race to salvage goods as fire guts Eda Plaza in Jabi, Abuja. CREDIT: NTA

A fire outbreak on Sunday destroyed shops and goods reportedly worth millions of naira at Eda Plaza, a building materials market located opposite Chida Hotel in Jabi, Abuja.

A video from the scene posted by the Nigerian Television Authority shows shop owners racing to salvage goods.

An eyewitness told NTA that the alarm was raised around 3 am on Sunday after his brother-in-law, who owns two shops and a packing store within the affected plaza, received a distress call from a colleague at the market.

He said there were no casualties in the incident.

The eyewitness said, “We were at home this morning, as early as 3 am, and my brother-in-law received a call from one of his colleagues here in the plaza that the plaza was on fire. So we had to rush down there. On getting here, we discovered that the situation was so bad.”

By the time they arrived at the scene, he said the fire had already spread extensively, leaving only one of his brother-in-law’s two shops standing.

“In this plaza, my brother-in-law had two shops and a packing store. Unfortunately, only one of the shops was saved. The other shop and the packing store were totally damaged by the fire,” he added.

The eyewitness put the value of roofing materials lost in the blaze at more than N20 million, lamenting that some of the destroyed materials had been freshly installed the night before the incident.

“Over here, you see some of the roofs that we still have here. We are talking about a roof that is worth over N20 million lost in this fire,” he said, adding, “Because the other shop, we had roofs that were just restocked last night. And then the packing store also, we had roofs that were just restocked last night.”

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The eyewitness said he was consoled that the incident claimed no casualties despite the heavy losses recorded.

“In our situation, we give thanks to God that no life was lost in this situation,” he said.

Efforts by PUNCH Online to get a reaction from the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service have not yet succeeded at the time of filing this report.

However, the head of the Julius Berger firefighters’ team, which also responded to the incident, said the situation was under control.

“We were called by a quarter to 4:00 in the morning, helping out to extinguish the fire.

“We had two fire engines, two fire water tankers, and eight firemen that helped extinguish this fire.

“It took us approximately four hours to… with the help, obviously, of the Federal Fire Department, to get this fire under control.”

He urged people to evacuate buildings in the event of a fire and avoid interfering with firefighters.

“In case of fire, evacuate the building and don’t disturb the firefighters doing their job. This is what is actually happening here. Everybody is inside there. I understand they try to save their possessions, but this is life. Life matters, and safety first.”