The cross section of shops destroyed by the inferno
Fire guts 5 shops inside Onitsha General Post Office premises
By Calis Mbadugha, Onitsha
No fewer than five shops within the premises of Onitsha General Post Office, along Old Market road, Anambra State, were said to have been gutted by fire in the wee hours of Sunday, (about 12.30 am), destroying wares and properties estimated into millions of naira
The cross section of shops destroyed by the inferno
The incident, which inside sources said was as a result of power surge, was about escalating up to Total Petrol filling station close to the scene, when sympathisers with the help of some local vigilante groups, made frantic effort and succeeded in quenching the raging inferno.
According to the sources, when the inferno 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 dealt on stationeries, Mrs. Monica Awuruebo, told newsmen that all her goods, cash and other items were lost to the inferno and urged Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo and other good spirited individuals to come to her rescue.
"I was called on phone by my neighbor, a food vendor, that I should rush to Post Office immediately that my shop was on fire and I rushed to the scene, behold, the shop 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 four shops here and they were all touched including scores of make-shift structures.
"You can see that we have Total Petrol filling station as neighbor 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 cause of the incident 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," she further explained.
As at the time of filling this report, smoke was still billowing from the shops which made the management of the Total Filling station not to rest as all eyes were on the inferno that occasionally sparks off light despite the quantity of water poured in there to stop it from further excalation.
There have not been any fire fighters and police to the since since the inferno started to the time of filing this report despite efforts neighbors claimed they made to alert the fire service men on the inferno.