Adibe Emenyonu writes on two major disasters that occurred in Edo State towards the end of 2016
It was catastrophe and anger few weeks to Christmas celebration as a multi billion naira popular Hallmark Super Market located in the heart of the ancient capital town of Benin, Edo State went down completely during an early morning fire which gutted the complex. The business edifice located on the busy Sapele road in Benin City reputed for its rich, high quality and assorted goods was said to have went up in flames at about 3:00a.m. following a sudden power surge from the third floor of the imposing building.
As at 8:00 Sunday morning when THISDAY visited the complex, thousands of sympathisers, friends and associates of the owner had besieged the area to console the management over the huge sudden loss. Teams of fire fighting services from various stations and organisations on rescue mission battled relentlessly to put off the raging fire even as thick smoke emitted from the entire complex. A fire fighting truck from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) later arrived at 8:45a.m. to assist the various teams as water finished from their tanks.
It was learnt that the fire started from the third floor following power surge from an inverter in one of the rooms, moments after power was restored to the area and the explosion spread from the top to the down floor. Although, no life was lost during the early morning inferno but goods and cash worth several billions of naira were destroyed in the process. Investigations revealed that the management and staff of the super market had brought and offloaded truck load of assorted goods on Saturday before the unfortunate occurrence, less than 24 hours the previous morning. There was heavy presence of armed mobile and regular policemen deployed to the scene to prevent looters from the area as the alerted rescuers and staff struggled to save some goods in the heat of the incident.
Efforts to speak with the proprietor, staff and management of the complex failed as they battled to salvage what remained of the edifice just as security was reinforced to drive out the surging crowd from the premises including those who had stormed out of their various worship centres to witness the ugly happening on hearing the sad news. Further findings showed that fire service men arrived late after much damage had been done at the troubled spot due to failed equipment from the state outfit and delayed instruction and approval from authorities of sister agencies out to salvage the complex from the unfortunate occurrence.
But the State Director of Fire Services, Mr. Agbonlahor Franklin told newsmen that he was alerted about the fire outbreak on the supermarket by an undisclosed staff from the state fire service and the General Manager of Kada Fry Kitchen, an eatery, belonging to the popular business magnate Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, which shares a common fence with the burnt super market, from where he mobilised men of his station and others to the area for necessary action. Agbonlahor said, “I was alerted at about 3:30a.m. this Sunday by the General Manager of Kada Fry Kitchen and a staff from my office that there was fire outbreak in Hallmark; immediately we swung into action.
We got the assistance of sister agencies, IDSL people were on ground, University of Benin was on ground, Air Force was on ground; these were all collective responsibility and that was how the inferno was curtailed. It was a very high magnitude fire but thank God no soul was lost but a lot of properties were actually damaged.
We are still trying to salvage the premises so that there would be no escalation. You can see we are suffocating the structure to make sure that the heat inside goes out.” While denying the alleged delay to respond and rescue the building from the fire outbreak, he explained “So, gentlemen, a lot of people will always say a lot things that our men were not on ground, we cannot use bare hands.
So, I am appealing to anyone who wants to contribute to make fire service a better one by giving adequate materials, this is the only way we can swing into action and work properly.” Agbonlahor added that, “Yesterday there was an outbreak in Sapele Road, we were able to contain it in less than 20 minutes but as soon the vehicle was coming down the engine ‘erupted’ with defect (got problem) what do we do. We cannot do it that night we have to wait for a mechanic this morning (Sunday) to find a solution.
We have tried all we could do this morning to make sure that the vehicle is functional and can attend to this problem but all efforts failed. But from what we are seeing now it is obvious that a lot of people are working, all the men you are seeing here they are all fire officers.” Governor Godwin Obaseki who visited the scene to commiserate with the owner, Mr. Philip Edigin, apart from expressing shock at the damage also pledged that government will conduct an investigation into the cause of the fire. “This incident, happening at this time of the year, is a catastrophe.
I have asked for a written report and an investigation into the cause of the fire. We will also investigate the claim by an official of the state fire service on lack of equipment.
“I understand that trucks were distributed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the state government during the last administration.” It was also a bleak moment for the families and management of University of Benin who lost three of its senior lecturers among the 22 persons that were roasted when a bullion van reportedly carrying huge sum of money collided with a stationary truck along the Benin-Agbor expressway.
The incident was said to have occurred at Abudu town in Orhiomwon Local Government Area of Edo State. The names of the deceased lecturers were given as Prof. Lucky Okunrobo, Head of Pharmcuetical Chemistry; Dr. Godwin Joseph, Acting \head, Pharmaceutical Microbiology; and Dr. Saturday Idemudia, Assistant Lecturer, Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology. A statement from the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Edo State which confirmed the incident, said all the victims were buried in a mass grave as they were all burnt beyond recognition.
The FRSC official who pleaded anonymity said policemen have cordoned the road and that they were expecting fire service men to help put out the fire. Also involved were two commercial buses coming on top speed which rammed into the accident vehicles and got trapped beneath the heavy duty vehicles and burst into flames.
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