Fire Renders 50 Homeless In PH

No fewer than 50 people residing at West-End Street, Circular Road at Amadi-Ama axis of Port Harcourt were rendered homeless following an early morning inferno on Saturday.

As at the time reporters got to the scene of the incident, the state Fire Service had managed to put out the fire but odour of burnt zinc roofs and properties worth over N10 million was still present in the area.

The Tide on Sunday reliably gathered that only few people could save their properties since most of the buildings are makeshift of wood and zinc even as the houses were closely built to each other.

The Tide On Sunday learnt that the fire broke out from one of the rooms in the slum at about 2.00am but none of the residents could ascertain the major cause of the fire as they gave different accounts of the story.

However, caretaker of one of the affected buildings, Mr Lincoln Green told The Tide On Sunday that though no lives were lost, milling of properties were lost to the incident which took the residents by surprise.

Green narrated that about 2.00am he heard one of his tenants raising alarm over fire few blocks to his apartment. In the bid to save his family, Mr Green lamented that he could only save few valuables, adding that his documents and handsets which he bought recently were burnt.

Mr Green stated, “Even when the state Fire Service came they could not control the fire much because they could not gain any entrance.”

Another resident, Mr Bluz Idoh stated that the fire may have started from the room of the residents, a lady whom he said, fled from the area immediately the fire broke out.

Mr Idoh said he could only save few belongings including his wife who had a one year baby and three relations.

He told The Tide On Sunday  that he is not an indigene wondering where to go as his homeland in Jos is equally engulfed with crisis.

Idoh called on government and other public spirited individuals to come to their rescue by providing them with relief materials, in order to cushion their pains.

The same call was made by Mrs Mercy John, who stated that her husband was not at home when the incident occurred, hence she managed to retrieve only few properties with her one week old baby and small daughter.