Apartments at No 9, Awkwuzu Street in the Diobu area of Mile One in Port Harcourt, Rivers State have been gutted by fire.
Goods and property worth millions of naira were destroyed during the inferno on Tuesday and over 20 affected occupants of the building were displaced.
A witness said the fire started from the roof of a woman who left her cooking gas on and went to the hospital.
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The source claimed this was because the camp gas was faulty, and the owner did not realise that she had not properly turned the gas off before leaving home.
She mentioned that none of the occupants was able to salvage any property from the building.
The source said:
“A woman unknowingly left her gas on. You know how these camp gases fumble when the regulators are bad.
“Probably she turned it off thinking it was off but I think she did not observe it well. She took it inside her apartment, locked the door and left for the clinic.
“Before people could realise, it got burnt and exploded. That was the cause of the fire. Nobody was able to pick anything out of the place. The place was completely razed down.”
Another resident said the fire was on for two hours and no fire-fighters showed up.
The Commander, Federal Fire Service in Rivers State, Abdul Alfa also confirmed the ugly event.
According to Alfa, his men were unable to get to the scene because their operational vehicles were under maintenance.
He said:
“It is not that we did not turn up. The problem is that our vehicles are off the road. They are under maintenance.
“But I tried to call the fire departments from some of the companies here in Port Harcourt to see how they can assist. If our vehicles are in order, what are waiting for? It is our job and we don’t waste time in responding to such distress calls because we know it is an emergency.”
