Scene of the market fire
A five-year-old boy died when fire razed a part of Muda Lawal Market in Bauchi metropolis yesterday. Properties were also destroyed in the inferno, which lasted almost two hours.
Chairman of the market, Baba Magaji, who confirmed the incident, said the five-year-old boy was sleeping in one of the shops when the incident happened. Magaji said: “The fire started from a truck carrying mattresses that parked in the market since yesterday.
Most of the eyewitnesses said a Keke Napep that parked closed to the truck started the fire as a result of an electric spark.
“We recorded huge losses in the fire outbreak. A five-year-old boy, who was sleeping in one of the shops in the market during the fire incident, died. So far, 17 shops, eight cars, 11 motorcycles, and one Keke Napep were burnt in the inferno. Some of the youths threw stones at the vehicle of the fire service because they were angry they arrived late at the scene of incident. It took the intervention of the security agents to calm the situation.”
The spokesman of the State Fire Service Abubakar Bala, said the incident occurred when an overloaded truck with mattresses collided with an electricity pole. According to him, the fire was eventually put out by the officials of the service who came to the scene of the incident.
He added that security personnel were equally deployed to the area to maintain law and order.
Efforts to speak with the state Police Public Relations Officer, Kamal Abubakar, were not successful as several calls made to his mobile phone were not picked as of the time of filing this report.
