Fire on Monday night razed down a building in Javino in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to newsmen, the outbreak was caused by activities at the building where petrol was allegedly stored illegally.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that with fuel scarcity in most parts of Nigeria, the owner of the goods was said to have stored diesel in tanks for sale to desperate customers as ‘black market’.
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According to an eyewitness, the owner on Monday tried to use a pumping machine to fill an iron keg which led to the fire outbreak razing down the building in the process.
The fire engulfed other tanks containing fuel and diesel, a few shops around and the roof of a building under construction.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that barely 30 minutes of inferno, the Niger State Fire Service arrived at the scene to salvage the situation but ran out of water shortly after.
However, a private organisation, Empire Energy Limited that was close by, were alerted and arrived with their fire truck and helped quench the fire completely.
One of the eyewitnesses, Linda Albert, lamented the situation saying she hopes that the dealers of such goods are taken away from residential areas.
‘Early this morning, we heard fire, and we came out. It was a bad sight, but we thank God that the fire is out.
‘If the government can help us take these people away from here. This is a residential area and imagine if this fire incident started in the night, lives would have been lost,’ Albert narrated.
The fuel scarcity in the country at moment has made many Nigerians to resort to buying the product at exorbitant prices from ‘black market’ sources.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
