Fire Destroys 300 Shops, Property Worth N1bn In Ibadan

Property worth more than one billion naira was lost, Wednesday, as fire gutted Labaowo International Market, off Oke-Bola, Ibadan. A girl was also injured in the fire.
Although, no life was lost, traders whose wares were lost in the inferno that started some minutes past 10am struggled to retrieve one or two things from the burning fire.
When Vanguard visited the market yesterday around 3.05pm, fire was still burning some of the shops. Firemen were seen struggling to put out the fire.
The President of the market, Alhaji Lukman Alaka, told our correspondent that more than 300 shops were burnt.
Items such as electronics, motor spare parts, generator spare parts, building materials and many others were lost to the fire incident.
When asked what caused the fire, he said; “Suddenly, we saw balls of smoke was accompanied by fire. We called all the fire stations close to us, but, the response was not immediate. I called Challenge fire station and another one at Mapo. When I noticed that they were not forth coming, I had to go to Mapo before help could come. But, before we got back to the market, the fire had gone out of hand.
“As for the property lost, it can’t be less than one billion. Many traders were affected. Some could not even retrieve anything from their shops. We would be happy if the government can provide a fire station for us here.”
One of the affected traders, Mr. Tijani Amoo explained that he just took a bank loan worth N800,000 to buy wares lamenting how he would refund the money.
He said he lost all the items. Though, he was not far away from the scene of the fire, by the time he knew, the fire was too much.
The Director of State Fire Service, Mr Kareem Oyekunle said his men battled for long before the fire could be put out. He said as soon as the distress call came, he and his officials rushed to the scene.