About seventeen shops were on Saturday razed in a midnight fire incident that engulfed part of Olulere new market (Oja tuntun) in Ile-Ife, Osun state.
Nigeriacrime.com gathered that the fire started past 12 of Saturday in a part of the market and spread gradually before the firefighters were alerted.
An eyewitness who identified himself simply as Dayo disclosed that the fire started from a shop inside the market.
Unfortunately, before the men of the fire service could arrive at the scene, it snowballed into a huge fire incident.
Confirming the incident, Osun Fire Service spokesperson, Adekunle Ibrahim said it received a fire alert around 12:30 am, adding that upon arriving at the scene, it met an inferno.
He added that the service in collaboration with Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, fire unit eventually put out the fire but 16 shops with a container shop had already been razed.
His words, “We met the fire well alight and put it out with a combined effort with OAU Fire Unit.
“A row of blocks which contains 8 shops in front and another 8 at the back, making a total of 16 shops plus another one container shop were affected
“The cause of the fire incident was unknown at the time of this release, but many speculations by sympathizers and onlookers put the cause of the fire on many factors among which is power surge”.