Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
An afternoon fire has razed the Dutse residence of the Jigawa State Accountant-General, Alhaji Haruna, Ahmed Aminu.
The fire was suspected to have been caused by power surge about 13 hours after it was cut due to last night’s wind storm that felled trees and some electric cables within the state capital.
The fire according to one Mallam Nasiru, who is an eyewitness, started when electricity was restored. He said he was the one that changed the power source from a power generating set after electricity was restored.
Nasiru who claimed to reside in the house and a student with Dutse State Polytechnic said: “When power was restored around 12 noon, I switched off the line from the generating set that had been on since morning to NEPA.”
“After a while, one of the maids in the house ran out shouting fire, fire; upon discovering the incident, I started pouring water from the tap on the fire to try to quench it but to no avail,” he said.
He said the fire which seemed to have started from the bedroom of the accountant-general defied all attempts by the people who rushed in to support the fight.
Our correspondent observed that the fire could not have been put-off without the intervention of the airport fire engines that supported the state fire service.
But apart from the house which was completely razed down, other household properties including clothes, electrical items, and furniture were destroyed by the inferno.