By John OVIE
One of the Victims of the major fire incidence that occurred at the early hours of Thursday at the popular Opolo Furniture market in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital has reportedly collapsed and rushed to a nearby hospital.
The female victim (name withheld) was said to have lost consciousness and fell down upon sighting her furniture accessories shop completely raised down by fire.
When TNN crew visited the scene of the fire disaster located opposite Rain Oil dispensing outlet, many victims were seen wailing, wondering where to start the new year from having lost their source of livelihood to the inferno.
One of the victims, identified as Sam Kiro told our correspondent that he was in a state of confusion, noting that “my friend called me around 5:AM today (Thursday) that there is fire in my shop.
“When I reached here, everything has already been damaged. My machines, Lister generator and my furniture equipment, including chairs that l have prepared for my costumers, have all gone. Where do l start from?”
Another victim and dealer on furniture accessories, who gave his name as Agbedo Chinedu, said he lost business properties worth N56 million.
The bewildered victim solicited government’s assistance to enable them bounce back to business.
The President of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Bayelsa state, Mr. Frank Odunukwe, who was at the scene to sympathise with the victims, appealed to both the state government and individuals to come to the aid of the affected persons.
Speaking to TNN, a personnel of the Federal Fire Service in charge of Inspectorate and Investigation Unit, Bayelsa State Command, Superintendent John Oyinda said preliminary investigations traced the source of the inferno to a certain boy who allegedly set-up fire to scare mosquitoes while working early in the morning but the fire escalated beyond his control.
“We had a distress call about 5:45AM and we immediately swing into action. Upon arrival, we noticed that the fire had already developed. So we decided to a defence to avoid further spread of the fire. We did that and the fire was contained. This is the final stage. You can see our men doing what is called damping down,” he narrated.
Oyinda advised residents to collaborate with the fire service to be trained on first aid firefighting skills.
Noting that no life was lost in the incidence, he however urged residents to give early information to fire service personnel by dialing 112 toll-free number whenever fire incidence occurs.
