…FEMA Says There Aren’t Any Causalities
On Thursday, a popular market in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) known as Karimo was destroyed by a fire that broke out early in the morning.
According to our source, the exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
One of the traders, who did not want to be identified, informed our correspondent that the fire started in one shop and spread to the others.
According to reports, this is the fourth time the Karimo market has been destroyed by fire.
According to him, “Traders have started counting their losses and salvaging what was left of their goods”.
He said goods worth millions of naira were destroyed by the fire.
Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at about 12.28am, today, received a distress call from the National Emergency Call Centre ,112 notifying the Agency of a fire outbreak at Karimo Market located in a community in Abuja Municipal Area Council of the FCT.
According to a statement by FEMA PRO, Nkechi Isa, the Director General of FEMA, Alhaji Abbas Idriss stated that the Agency immediately activated the FCT Fire Service, Federal Fire Service and NEMA to join it’s response team.
On noticing that the fire was spreading, FEMA requested additional fire stations from the Mutual Fire Service institutions. With the support of military, the Nigeria Police Force DSS, FRSC and other Security Agency’s
combined efforts, the fire was brought under control at about 4.41am.
Idriss commended the search and rescue team of FEMA,shop owners , security agencies, community leaders and the people of Karimo for efforts to salvage some goods and properties from the inferno.
The DG informed that there were no casaulities during the incident, but goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.
According to Idriss, the loss and accesors team of FEMA ,NEMA,Traders Associations ,Area Council Local Emergency Management Committee as well as security agencies are on the field to get an estimated value of losses incurred by the traders
He further stated that FEMA was working with all relevant agencies to ascetain the proximate cause of the fire and would forward a full report to the administration after the investigations.
He commiserated with traders affected by the inferno on behalf of the Hon Minister of the FCT and his counterpart, the minister of State.
The FEMA boss reiterates the call for the segmentation of markets in the FCT, while also appealing to traders not to reside in markets. The traders are also caution not to cook in the market and where there is electricity, all appliances should be put off to avoid a repeat of such inferno.
