TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Multi-million naira worth of property including a hotel, have been destroyed by fire at No. 48 Azikiwe Street, Mile 2 Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
No causality was recorded recorded in the inferno which lasted for several hours.
Daily Sun gathered that the fire outbreak started from boiling oil used by a food vendor, when she was cooking for the day’s business,
According to an eyewitness who was identified as Nonye Joy, over 20 rooms used by sex workers were burnt down by the inferno.
Joy added that property worth millions of naira were destroyed in the fire, before torchinig hotel, adding that several efforts to reach the State Fire service for help, proved abortive.
She said, “The fire started at a small food vendor’s place, where a Yoruba woman sells “Mama Put” in front of the brothel here around 8am, the oil she was using caught fire and exploded, while people were trying to extinguish it, the fire spread to the hotel building.
“Youths in the area tried put the fire off the flames, but to no avail; several calls to the State Fire service were not answered for over three hours, until the fire consumed everything”, Joy stated.
Another eyewitness, Johnson Godwin, said youths in the area became exhausted after struggling with buckets of water for hours to contain the fire, but could not succeed.
Godwin said: “We struggled with the fire for more than three hours to put it off, but were unable. We
used buckets of water, sachet water and every other methods we know. But, could not put it off, at point we all became tired.
“If not for the initial efforts of the boys, the fire would have spread to other buildings. But, fortunately, the losses were minimal, although the situation is saddening”.
Speaking, Director of the affected brothel, Prince Ihunwo, appealed to kind-hearted Nigerians to come to his aids, lamenting that he could not quantify the losses recorded in the fire incident.