Fire guts Ife biggest market

Fire in the early hours of Wednesday razed many stalls inside Oja tuntun, said to be the biggest market within Ile Ife metropolis in Osun State.

The fire incident was the second of such in the market this year as about 30 shops were razed on Thursday April 9.

Although no one could say precisely how the fire started, a resident of the neighbourhood, where the market is located, Demola Olagunju, told our correspondent he observed the inferno around 12 am.

But one of the officials of the market, Chief Ojuolape Ojogeade, in a chat said when she rushed to the market around 11pm on Tuesday; many stalls had already been razed.

She added that the situation got worse because the firemen lacked sufficient water to put out the inferno.

“When we rushed down here around 11pm, many stalls had already been razed. We contacted the fire service, but when they arrived here, the water they came with was insufficient.

“Immediately we discovered that, we started breaking the stall and brought out the goods that have not been burnt,” Ojogeade said.

She then urged the government to establish a fire station inside the market, saying the request for such facility for the market in the past had not been granted.

Efforts to get reaction of Osun State Fire Service to the incident proved futile as calls to the Administrative Officer of the service, Fatai Aremu, were not answered.

He had also not replied a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Though, Adijat Basiri, the spokesperson for the Federal Fire Service in the state, confirmed the incident, she explained that the federal fire men were not contacted about the incident.