255 SHOPS DESTROYED IN KATAKO MARKET INFERNO

SOURCE: LEADERSHIP

An early morning inferno at the popular katako Market in Jos
metropolis of Plateau State yesterday razed about 255 shops and
destroyed property worth millions of naira.
Several persons were also said to have...
sustained various degrees of injury.
One of those who witnessed the incident, Emeka, told LEADERSHIP that
the inferno destroyed items including building materials, grains,
household items and fairly used clothes.
Chairman of Grain Traders Association in the market, Kabiru Lawal, who
attributed the fire to power surge, said the fire started immediately
power was restored.
"The voltage was extremely high and this resulted into flames from
some machines in some shops," he explained.
Some of the affected traders who spoke with LEADERSHIP, appealed to
the state government to assist traders most of whom had lost their
life's savings in the inferno.
Director of Fire Service, Plateau state command, Mr Michael Dung, who
confirmed the incident in a telephone interview, described the
incident as a set back to the traders.
According to him, "when we got the news of the outbreak of fire at the
market, our men immediately mobilised to the scene with six fire
trucks and it took us about eight hours to put out the fire."
He said the immediate cause of the fire was still unknown.