Several shops and stores selling building materials have been destroyed after an early-morning fire gutted Eda Plaza, a building-materials market opposite Chida Hotel in Jabi, Abuja.
The fire, which started at about 3am on Sunday, destroyed goods reportedly worth millions of naira, leaving traders and shop owners counting their losses.
The Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Department (FEMD), in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa, confirmed the incident and said several shops and stores were affected.
According to FEMD, the Federal Fire Service, FCT Fire Service and Julius Berger Fire Service responded to the incident and succeeded in containing the inferno at about 10:14am.
“No life was lost to the incident,” the statement said.
An eyewitness said the alarm was raised around 3am after his brother-in-law, who operates two shops and a packing store at the plaza, received a distress call from a colleague.
“We were at home this morning, as early as 3am, and my brother-in-law received a call from one of his colleagues here in the plaza that the plaza was on fire. So we had to rush down there. On getting here, we discovered that the situation was so bad,” he said.
The eyewitness said only one of his brother-in-law’s two shops was salvaged, while the other shop and the packing store were completely destroyed.
“In this plaza, my brother-in-law had two shops and a packing store. Unfortunately, only one of the shops was saved. The other shop and the packing store were totally damaged by the fire,” he added.
He estimated the value of roofing materials destroyed in the affected shops at more than N20 million, saying some of the goods had been newly stocked barely a day before the outbreak.
“Over here, you see some of the roofs that we still have here. We are talking about a roof that is worth over N20 million lost in this fire.
“The other shop had roofs that were just restocked last night, and the packing store also had materials that were freshly restocked before the fire,” he said.
Also confirming the incident, the National Public Relations Officer and Head of Corporate Services of the Federal Fire Service, Deputy Controller of Fire Paul Abraham, said a distress call concerning the Eda Plaza fire was received at 2:46am.
Abraham said the Federal Fire Service, in collaboration with the FCT Fire Service, deployed firefighting appliances from its Wuse, Interior Ministry and Garki stations to the scene.
He said a stop message was issued at 10:14am, indicating that the fire had been brought under control.
“The remote and immediate causes of the fire are currently under investigation,” he said.
FEMD, however, said the cause of the fire had not been officially established as of the time of its statement.
The emergency management department used the incident to stress the need for adequate fire extinguishers and firefighting equipment in markets and malls across the FCT.
It also called for proper electrical installations and regular inspections of markets to prevent fire outbreaks caused by electrical faults.
FEMD further appealed to residents to evacuate buildings immediately in the event of a fire and to avoid interfering with firefighters’ activities during emergency operations.
