Fire Destroys N6b Properties In Cross River

Over N5 billion worth of properties have been destroyed by fire in January 2013 in some parts of Cross River State, southsouth Nigeria.

The fire consumed 11  residential houses in Ogoja, Calabar, Obudu and Yala local government areas in the northern parts of the state.

Over 20  farmlands including rice and yam farms were also consumed by fire.

The impact of the incident imposes serious economic challenges on at least 1,220 persons displaced.

Chief and Mrs. Eunan Ishabor are retired civil servants whose property, a one storey building and three others located at Abakpa in Ogoja went up in flames recently rendering over 45 tenants homeless while 11 stores within the same premises were burnt along with household property.

Commenting on the disaster, the distressed landlord and his wife, Chief and Mrs. Ishabor, said that cause of the fire was unknown and lamented the possibility of rehabilitating the houses due to lack of resources.

Mr. Dermot Akate, whose business office was located in one of the buildings, described the incident as pathetic as he had lost all documents relating to his furniture business as well as cash.

Akate appealed to the state government to urgently come to the aid of the displaced persons  to reduce the trauma they are now facing.

Mathew Ngore, 28, a physically challenged man is also in what he considered as an unbearable condition as his apartment  at 70, Mayne  Avenue in Calabar South Local Government Area was burnt along side all his property.

Narrating his ordeal, Ngore who is  a graduate of the University of Calabar, lamented that all his belongings including certificates and other valuables were all burnt and that he was squatting with an uncle in Calabar.

He stated that his physically challenged condition was also compounding the situation as he could neither fend for himself nor meet up with other life challenges.

Assessing the various disasters, the Director – General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aquah said that the fire disaster has caused an unfortunate situation in the lives of the victims putting the value of the properties lost so far across the state in recent times at over N5 billion.

He promised that frantic efforts were being made by his office in collaboration with other stakeholders to provide relief to the victims and appealed to the public to heed the public campaigns on fire prevention which he said had seemingly been undermined by some people.

Aquah warned that the effect of fire is very serious and are irreversible and appealed for caution whenever fire was being used.

He advised against indiscriminate use of fires particularly bush burning which he said could be wild and uncontrollable especially during the harmatan period.

He praised the commitment of the State Fire Service for being proactive and responsive to fire disasters in the state and urged the authority to update their equipment to meet up with the modern ways of combating fire disaster.

According to him, the public should be wary of home fires and provide the necessary fire fighting equipment such as extinguishers and sandbags at home and to be careful while they use of all combustibles.

—Emma Una/Calabar