By Chuks Eke
The fire accident scene at Nkpor Main Market in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra state turned into a beehive of activities as groups and individuals visited the scene to commiserate with the victims as they clear the debris in their burnt shops.
Among the groups and individuals that visited the scene were members of Anambra state House of Assembly, executive members of Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders Association, ASMATA led by its President-General, Chief Humphrey Anuna and a delegation sent by Senator Victor Umeh representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, under the platform of the Labour Party, LP.
After conducting the visitors round the scene, by the Chairman of the market, Chief Paul Okafor, the visitor commiserated with the victims and urged them to have their trust in God for speedy recovery from the shock and rehabilitation of their shops and goods.
They also pledged to give any necessary assistance they could to enable the victims bounce back to business as soon as possible.
The traders had been jolted by the fire incident which started by 2 a.m. on Wednesday and ravaged about 30 shops market with goods estimated at N300 million perished.
Confirming the incident, Chairman of the market, Chief Paul Okafor had told newsmen in his office on Wednesday morning that the fire exploded from a cold room shop and spread to other nearby shops.
Okafor whose own wine shop was also gutted by the inferno, said the fire affected shoos loaded with paints, curtains, gum, l shoe leathers, shoe polish, wines, hot drinks, thinners, among others, adding that although as at that press time, the final estimation of the total goods damaged have not been determined, a rough sketch showed that the value of burnt goods would not be less than N300 million.
The market leader lamented that all the phone calls put across to the state fire service did not yield any dividend as they did not show up until the traders themselves mobilized and put it off very late.
He therefore called on the state government to station some fire fighter vehicles under the flyover bridge at Nkor main market to serve the three major markets within the vicinity, including New Auto Spare Parts Market, Mercedes Benz Lorry Okd Spare Parts Market, New Tyre Market and the Main market in any fire incident.
He also called on the state and Idemili North local governments and pblic spirited individuals and groups to come to the aid of the affected traders in order to bounce back to business as soon as possible.
In his sympathy message to the traders, a patron of Anambra Markets Amalgamated Traders Association, ASMATA and President of Building Materials Traders Association, Chief Jude Nwankwo, expressed his heart felt sympathy for the victims, also called on government and individuals and groups to assist the victims.
Nwankwo who is also the President of Building Materials Traders Association,Ogidi,l, suggested that market leaders should provide fire extinguishers in their various markets to mitigate the effects f fire disasters particularly at nights, using their night guards to operated the fire extinguishers if fire broke out at nights, while waiting for fire service men.
