On Monday the 4th of January 2016, fire razed a major market in Yola, Adamawa destroying property worth billions of naira. The inferno, which began at about 3:00 am, was said to have been the result of an electrical glitch.
The Yola market fire occurred on the heels of another major fire outbreak in the Abdulkadir Kure Market Minna, Niger state, which destroyed goods worth millions of naira. The Minna fire also occurred in the wee hours of the morning at about 1:00 am and was blamed on the use of generators due to the absence of electricity supply.
Reportedly, efforts by the State Fire Service were stymied by the lack of access roads within the market, hence, the fire service was unable to salvage the situation as the fire raged of control. But, according to other reports, the fire had already taken over the market and quite a lot of damage had already been done before the arrival of the fire service. Mr. Haruna Hammanfuro, the executive secretary of Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency has said that the fire incident was the worst of its kind in the history of the market.
A major concern surrounding the incident is the shortage of food supply in Yola as most food crops are traded in the market. Shop owners lament their losses as they called on the state government for aid. For a good number of them, their shops were their only source of income. In response, the deputy governor of Adamawa state, Martins Babale, said that the government will assess the extent of damage in order to know the amount of aid to be given to the traders.
The Yola market fire is the fifth major fire outbreak in Nigeria in a little over a month. The people of Nnewi, Anambra state had a black Christmas as a gas tanker ignited a fire at an industrial gas plant on Thursday the 24th of December, killing over 100 people. The following day, an inferno razed more than 250 shops in Igbajo market, Ibadan, Oyo State. Two days after, tragedy struck a second time in the same Igbajo market, destroying over 100 shops, four houses and three cars. The cause of this incident is yet to be ascertained.
