Shop owners, mostly foodstuff traders broke down and wept like children when late-night inferno several shops late Thursday night in Kaduna, leading to a loss of goods and property worth millions of naira.

The fire which started at about 1 am, at Narayi Bus stop area of Kaduna city, according to an eyewitness, began from a building material shop before spreading to other shops.

The eyewitness who reported an electric spark before electricity power in the area went off hinted at the possibility of an electric fault causing the fire. The fire was said to have spread from the building material shop to adjourning shops and razed them completely. Unfortunately, they include some shops believed to store some highly inflammable substances which were said to have further inflamed the fire spread. It was such that by the time firefighters arrived, it was too late to save the situation.

When our correspondent visited the scene, affected traders were seen in group bemoaning their losses. One of the traders, Mrs. Gift Christian said: “The only thing I removed was ten measures (mudus) of garri; all other things were consumed by the fire. It was not long I took IOU and restocked my shop. Now everything is gone.”

Another trader, simply identified as Tobechi told our correspondent: “I lost everything, I mean everything in my shop running into millions of naira. Everything   was lost to the fire.”

Sympathizers were seen consoling the victims. Carcasses of burnt items like plastic containers of palm oil, bags of rice, bags of crayfish could be seen littering the area.

A similar incident happened in the area about a month ago when grocery sellers lost their goods to an evening fire. Meanwhile, the affected traders have concluded plans to visit Barnawa police station under which jurisdiction the incident happened to lodge a formal report.

Source:Sunnewsonline.

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