Late Night Fire Razes Bauchi’s Biggest Shopping Complex
Gov Bala Mohammed joins rescue team
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – No fewer than seventy shops and properties worth several millions of Naira have been destroyed in a late night inferno that razed one of the biggest shopping complex in Bauchi metropolis, Bababa Shopping Complex
The complex is located close to the popular Wunti market and information gathered indicate that the fire started late Friday night at about 11pm and lasted into the early hours of Saturday, February 13, 2021.
A combined team of fire fighters from the State Fire Service, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) and Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi (FedPoly) fire services were on hand fighting to control the fire and stop it from spreading to other adjoining buildings and areas.
Regrettably, despite the spirited efforts by the firefighters, the Shopping complex, which accommodates over 100 shops and stalls, was completely burnt with nothing salvaged with the shop owners having closed for the day’s business.
Though officials have not been able to ascertain the fire source, there are insinuations that it could have been due to power surge when PHCN restored power supply, thereby causing sparks in some of the shops that did not switched off their power outlets.
According to eyewitnesses’ accounts, it however took the combined efforts of Police personnel and members of the local vigilante group popularly known as ‘Yan Komiti’ to keep at bay some criminal elements that tried breaking into some shops and going on looting spree.
Reports also said the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir joined many others at the incident scene as soon as information got to him about the inferno.
Arriving the scene, Governor Bala was involved in the rescue efforts while commiserating with the victims and urging them to endure it as an act of Allah, even as he thanked Allah that no life was lost in the disaster.
The Governor, while sympathising with the traders for their losses, especially livelihood sources, assured that the remote and immediate causes of the incident will be investigated by the relevant authorities.
Governor Bala Mohammed, who spent a few hours at the fire scene, however promised that government will immediately undertake measures to assist the victims and mitigate their huge losses.
More coming later…
