The fire disaster

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Goods and properties worth millions of Naira were Monday evening destroyed in an inferno that engulfed a storey building in Benin, Oredo gocal government area of Edo State.
The building which is located at 83, Forestry Road, consists of living apartments on top floor and business shops, including a generator store in the group floor.
It was gathered that the inferno began at about 6 pm‎, when most of the shop owners had closed for the day.
Men of the state fire service were battling to put out the fire which had completely razed the building.
Chinedu Victor, an eyewitness who spoke to journalists, said that the fire may have been caused by power surge as power supply was interrupted when it broke out.
He said, “It was power surge‎. There was power supply then but it has been interrupted now. The fire service people came after 15 minutes.
“There were a lot of rooms there; the place is like a barrack. But everybody was rescued. Nobody was injured.”
One of the tenants, Sarah Etiben, who wept uncontrollably, told journalists that she had sighted the flame from the location of her workplace but did not know that it came from her house.
‎”Somebody just called me that our house was burning. My workplace is not too far from here. I saw the flame and thought it was coming from another place.
“I cannot really explain what happened. My mother and siblings lived in the building but I cannot find them now,” Etiben said.