Shops belonging to clothe sellers at Broad street, Lagos Island, were on Tuesday razed by fire.
Witnesses told this newspaper that the fire, which started at around 2 a.m. in the night, erupted from a nearby electricity transformer.
Most of the affected traders are clothe sellers, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
“The fire started around 2:00am but I was called at around 3:am,” said a trader who identified herself simply as Folasade.
“We tried to put it off, with the help of people around here but many of the goods had been destroyed,” she added.
PREMIUM TIMES’ attempts to speak with some of the affected shop owners were rebuffed, as they wept uncontrollably outside their shops.
Others who were busy evacuating the remains of their goods from their respective shops, said they were too sad to speak.
A trader who did not want her name in print disclosed that when the fire broke out, some of her fellow traders could not be reached on phone in the middle of the night, adding that most of their goods were consumed by fire.
“When I heard about the fire around 2:30 a.m., I tried to call the trader beside me but her phone wasn’t reachable,” she said.
“Now almost all her goods have been consumed by the fire. That’s why we often tell people to always put their phones on,” she said.
Many traders, including a secondhand clothe seller, Ugochukwu, told PREMIUM TIMES that the fire started from a nearby electricity transformer, then spread to other shops around the area.
But another witness, who declined to have his name in print, said the fire started from one of the shops in the market before spreading to other shops.
“They only want to use the ‘transformer story’ as a cover up; the fire started from one of the shops opposite here before it spread to other shops,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES could not independently confirm his account as other traders around the market declined to speak.
Source : Premium Times
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