Fire Guts Spare Part Shops At Ladipo Market

 There was a fire outbreak at Ladipo Auto spare parts market, Mushin Lagos at about 2 am yesterday morning which razed about 50 shops to the ground. No definite cause for the fire has been ascertained so far. One source told The Nation that the fire was caused by a gas explosion while another source said it was by irregular power supply. The fire reportedly started from the Osoro/Akinwumi area of the market.

One of the traders at the market, Chukwu Ebuka Ekeneze said:

“The fire was caused by gas; there is a woman who cooks nearby we heard her gas was left on and that lead to the fire outbreak,” he said.

Another trader, Emeka said:

“We got to the shop this morning and found our things burnt; the fire started 3am this morning, we could not salvage anything. My neighbour kept N2 million in his shop but getting here it was all burnt, we picked the money and all we could feel was the ashes. The security men on duty immediately alerted fire fighters, but they arrived the scene around 6am.”

Ifeanyi Maduka said:

“Well I can’t give you facts, but judging from all that has happened here since, we cannot ascertain the cause of the fire, this fire started around 2.am. This is typically a business environment; there is no possibility anybody could have been here to ascertain how it started, but some said it began from the electric pole, and giving the fact that there is gas around, it helped the fire to escalate. The information did not get to shop owners until about 5am.”

Mr Felix Okoro, Chairman of the Osoro section of the market, said no casualty was recorded but goods worth millions of naira were consumed by the inferno.

Lagos State Fire Service Director, Mr Rasak Fadipe, said his men responded immediately, and that the fire was put out at about 10 a.m.