Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed after a raging fire swept through Eda Plaza, a popular building materials market opposite Chida Hotel in the Jabi area of Abuja, in the early hours of Sunday.
The inferno, which reportedly started at about 3am, razed several shops and a packing store before firefighters brought the situation under control after several hours of battling the blaze.
An eyewitness said the alarm was raised after his brother-in-law, who owns two shops and a packing store in the plaza, received a distress call from a colleague.
“We were at home as early as 3am when my brother-in-law received a call from one of his colleagues here in the plaza that the place was on fire. So we had to rush down,” he said.
“On getting here, we discovered that the situation was so bad.”
However, the National Public Relations Officer and Head of Corporate Services of the Federal Fire Service, Deputy Controller of Fire Paul Abraham, said the agency received the distress call at 2:46am.
Abraham said firefighters were immediately deployed from the Wuse, Interior Ministry and Garki stations, with the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service also joining the operation.
According to him, the fire was eventually brought under control, with a stop message issued at 10:14am.
By the time the affected trader arrived at the scene, the fire had already spread through the plaza, destroying one of his two shops and his packing store.
“My brother-in-law had two shops and a packing store in this plaza. Unfortunately, only one of the shops was saved. The other shop and the packing store were completely damaged by the fire,” the eyewitness said.
The witness estimated that roofing materials worth more than N20 million were lost in the blaze, adding that some of the goods had been restocked only the previous night.
“Some of the roofs destroyed were worth over N20 million. We had materials that were restocked last night in the other shop and the packing store,” he said.
Despite the huge losses, the eyewitness expressed gratitude that no life was lost in the incident.
“In our situation, we give thanks to God that no life was lost,” he said.
Abraham said investigations had commenced to determine the immediate and remote causes of the fire.
