The burnt market

Femi Adi, Kaduna

Fire outbreak that razed down over 500 makeshift shops at Kaduna Railway Station Market early hours of Tuesday killed a boy and destroyed property worth millions.

According to an eyewitness , the fire which started from one of clothes shops around 2am today , became uncontrollable as the winds aided combustion .

“All attempt to extinguish the fire who frustrated by inability to get water to quench the raging fire”. He narrated

Another eyewitness, Baba Mohammed is one of security guards at the market , according to him, the fire might been caused by burning fire put up by some boys who sleeps in shops at the market.

” Unfortunately , all efforts to rescue one of the boys trapped in a clothes shop at the market , was unsuccessful and the boy died.” Mohammed said.

Though the fire fighters came to rescue at about 3am after the entire temporary shops ,mostly made of planks and zinc were burnt down.

However, some other witnesses attributed the cause to electrical fault ,but our correspondent later gathered that the fire was caused by left over fire , which affected a shop near it .

The State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA Public Relations Office, Abubakar Zakari , confirmed that a boy was killed, goods worth several million destroyed and over 500 shops burnt .

He however, said SEMA officials are conducting an assessment to confirm the immediate and remote cause of what he termed ” Unfortunate fire incident”.

Meanwhile , as at the time of filing this report 2.40pm ,Kaduna Governor , Malam Nasir El-Rufai was his way to the market to condole the traders.