Traders at the GSM market (Kasuwar Jagwal) in Damaturu have blamed firefighters for failure to put out an inferno that gutted their 30 shops on time before it escalated.
A shop owner, Awana Bukar, said that a distress call was made to the fire service when the fire started in two shops but they responded with a faulty firefighter truck.
“When the firefighter truck arrived, only three shops were affected, but the water pump/horse could not dispense water to quench the fire. It escalated and burnt down 30 shops.
“We lost property worth N150 million in those shops, and hundreds of youths have lost the source of their livelihoods,” he said.
But, the Public Relations Officer of the Yobe State Fire Service, Muhammad Bello
said the firefighters were prompt upon receiving the distress call but a lot of damage has been done already.
“We received the distress call around 5:50 am and responded to the scene a few minutes later but a lot of damage had already been done before our team arrived,’’ he said.
He said the fire was ignited by the supply of high electricity voltage and failure by some of the shop owners to switch off their appliances before closing their shops.
The Chairman of the Damaturu Trader’s Association, Alhaji Ali Sheriff, described the incident as a great loss, adding that the traders who are mostly youths lost property worth N150 million.
“I quickly rushed to the scene when I heard about the inferno, at that time, there were about three shops on fire. The firefighters arrived on time, but their water pump was faulty, so they could not put off the fire” he said.
He said it took the intervention of firefighting trucks from government house and Teaching Hospital before the fire was finally quenched.
He thanked the police for their prompt response, which had prevented thieves from stealing goods from other shops.
