Taiwo Popoola
A fire outbreak on Friday destroyed goods worth millions of naira at a popular market in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
The fire incident occurred at about 21:36 hours, at Olusola Saraki Market, Ita-Amo, Ilorin metropolis, according to the spokesman of the state fire service, Hassan Adekunle, in a statement in Ilorin.
Shops affected by the fire incident included meat vendors, clothing material shops and provision stores.
Firefighters were promptly deployed to the scene and discovered multiple shops ablaze in a market comprising 276 shops.
“Through swift intervention, professionalism, and expertise, our team successfully contained the inferno, limiting the damage to only seven shops and saving 269 others.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the incident might have been caused by a power surge following the fluctuating power supply from the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), as reported by the market’s security personnel,” Adekunle added.
Director of the Kwara State Fire Service, Falade John Olumuyiwa, sympathized with the market leadership, affected shop owners, and the entire market community.
He expressed hope that their losses would be restored in multiple folds and urged everyone to adopt fire safety measures to prevent future occurrences.
