Tenants count loses as fire razes building in Calabar

By Christian Njoku

Properties worth millions of naira were destroyed on Monday night by a fire outbreak that gutted a story building located along IBB Way in Calabar.

The fire which started between the hours of 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. was still smouldering in some of the apartments of the building as at the time of this report.

An eye witness, Mr Emmanuel Odok who lived in the next building to the affected one said that the fire was triggered by sparks from the electrical wire besides the building.

“We noticed continuous sparks from the wire in front of our building, so some boys quickly used sticks to disconnect the wire and thought the whole thing had ended. They didn’t know that the wire besides the next building was also sparking and fell on the outer part of the building that had two shops. The situation got worse as the fire came in contact with the generators in both shops that were locked since the owners had closed for the day and there was an explosion that increased the fire,” he said.

According to him, efforts to reach three sets of fire service were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile an occupant of one of the apartments that was razed said that she was heartbroken and was in no mood to speak, adding that she did not know how to start again.

When contacted, Mr Dennis Ajom, Director of the state service acknowledged receiving a distress call concerning the incident, but added that he was handicapped as the state presently had no fire truck.

Ajom said he however made effort to seek assistance from sister fire service in the state.

According to him, they actually called and there was nothing we could do at the state level to help.

“I however called the Federal Fire Service (FSS) who said they also have not truck, while the personnel on ground at the FSS said they needed authorisation from higher authority to act.” (NAN)