Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The popular Coal Camp Motor Parts market in Enugu was on Wednesday gutted by fire.
Ikengaonline reports that the fire incident destroyed over 40 shops with goods worth several millions of naira.
Speaking on the telephone, the President of Enugu State Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association, Mr Mike Nnome, said the incident began late in the night when the traders have all gone home.
He said: “We were woken in the midnight by the fire incident which started in one of the shops.
“When traders tried to open the shop they could not, and before we knew it the fire spread to a nearby restaurant shop where a cooking Gas Cylinder exploded before the fire spread to other shops.”
According to him, the traders called the State Fire Service officials, who came to quench the fire. “Before they arrived the fire had gone very far and many shops had been destroyed.
Nnome, however, said that a fire service officer lost his life in the inferno in the process of putting out the fire.
“The fire officer died when the smoke from the fire became so much as he could not find his way out of the fire.
Speaking, the State Chief Fire Officer, Okwudili Ohas, confirmed the death of the fire officer and gave his name as Engineer Chigozie Ugwu.
He described the officer as a dedicated and brilliant officer.
