Fire guts post office, destroys shops, goods in Onitsha

No fewer than five shops within the premises of Onitsha General Post Office, along Old Market Road, Onitsha, Anambra State, were yesterday gutted by fire.

The incident, according to the source, occurred at about 12:30 am as a result of a power surge which emanated from one of the shops.

Eyewitnesses said as the fire was about to escalate into a nearby petrol filling station close to the scene, it created serious panic, before sympathisers with the help of local vigilante groups, made a frantic effort and succeeded in controlling the raging inferno.

Goods and property worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed by the inferno.

Although the main building of the post office was not affected by the inferno as the fire was controlled by residents with the help of water gotten from a borehole opposite the post office, sources hinted that when the fire started, the security operatives within the area, raised the alarm that the post office was being gutted by fire which prompted neighbours to rush to the scene and assisted in quenching the inferno.

A victim of the incident who deals on stationeries and other related items, Mrs Monica Awuruebo, told journalists that all her goods, cash and other items were lost to the inferno.

Awuruebo said, “I was called on phone by my neighbour, a food vendor, that I should rush to the post office immediately that my shop was on fire and I rushed to the scene, behold, the shop has been turned to ashes, not a pin was recovered from my shop.

“Even my creditor, I told her to come and collect her money and because she wasted time, the money and my goods were lost to the inferno. We have about five shops here and they were all touched including scores of make-shift structures.

“You can see that we have Total  Petrol filling station as neighbour and if not by the grace of God, it would have been gutted by fire and that would have caused more damages and even loss of life. Thank God no life was lost.

“We are yet to know where the fire emanated from and the cause, but it may be as a result of power surge as nobody was around to have been held responsible as one who may have ignited the fire.”

When our correspondent visited the scene of the incident, smoke was still coming out from the debris of the burnt shops even as sympathisers and victims watched as the smoke sparked off fire occasionally.

As of the time of filing this report, there was no presence of fire fighters or police at the scene, the residents claimed that all efforts made to alert fire fighters proved abortive as none of them showed up.

When contacted on the development, the state fire chief, Martin Agbili, did not respond to calls and messages sent to his telephone line.

(Vanguard)