JUST IN: Fire Guts Shops, Goods Worth Millions At Abuja Building Materials Market

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

According to a report by Vanguard , the fire which broke out in the early hours of Sunday, destroyed shops and building materials, with an eyewitness saying the alarm was raised around 3am after his brother-in-law, who owns two shops and a packing store at the plaza, received a distress call from a colleague at the market.

National Public Relations Officer and Head of Corporate Services, Federal Fire Service, Deputy Controller of Fire Paul Abraham, confirmed the incident to Vanguard, saying a distress call concerning the blaze, identified as the Eda Plaza fire, was received at 2:46am.

Abraham said the Federal Fire Service, in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service, deployed fire appliances from its Wuse, Interior Ministry and Garki stations to combat the blaze.

He added that a stop message was issued at 10:14am, indicating that the fire had been brought under control.

According to him, investigations are ongoing to determine the remote and immediate causes of the fire.

The eyewitness said no lives were lost in the incident, despite the extent of the damage.

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“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,” he said.

He said the fire had already spread extensively by the time they reached the plaza, leaving only one of his brother-in-law’s two shops intact.

“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 estimated the value of roofing materials destroyed in the fire at more than N20 million, lamenting that some of the materials had only been restocked the previous night.

“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.

He added, “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 restucked last night.”

Despite the losses, the eyewitness said the absence of casualties offered some consolation.

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