5 Fear Dead, Many Trapped As Fire Guts Multi-Billion Onitsha Market (Details below)

About 5 traders and artisans feared dead as a strange fire gutted the popular Onitsha drug market, known as Ogbogu International Market, Bridge Head, Onitsha.

The inferno, which started at about 12noon on Tuesday, November 8, destroyed goods and buildings worth over N10 billion, according to a trader in the market, Amobi Okanume.

Okanume, who said that the cause of the fire was unknown, added that it was the first time the market was experiencing a fire disaster, Legit.ng correspondent, Mokwugwo Solomon, reported from Anambra. According to him, the fire caused much damage before the arrival of the firefighters from Onitsha and the neighbouring Asaba in Delta State.

Another trader in the market, identified as Ozigi, claimed that the fire started when an explosion occurred in one of the buildings at the Chemical Line of the Market.

He said,

“I was in the market at about 11am, when an explosion occured, and every trader started running helter skelter, scampering for safety.

“The explosion sparked fire that affected over 70 shops, destroying goods worth several billions of naira. Apart from goods and property, about 5 persons – 4 men and a woman were trapped; and they are not yet rescued as we speak.”

As of the time our reporter arrived at the scene of the incident, many traders were stranded, some wailing, some evacuating their goods in trucks and vehicles.

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