PH Fire Victims Count Losses

The victims of fire outbreak at No1, Victoria Street, Old Port Harcourt Township in Rivers State, are now counting their losses.
The fire, incident which occurred last Sunday, according to an eyewitness, was caused by adulterated kerosene, popularly called ‘’kpo-fire’’. The inferno razed the building which housed mostly shops and one living quarters.
A victim, who was too distraught to mention her name, lamented that none of the shop owners could take an item out of their shops.
She explained that at the onset of the inferno, the Rivers State Fire Services was alerted, but, ‘’they did not respond’’, until the Fire Service Department of Nigeria Ports Authority,(NPA) that was later called helped to put out the fire.
Another victim, Precious Ugochukwu, who sold electrical fittings and electronics lamented that the fire was so furious that nothing was taken out of his shop, which had new stocks.
According to him,’’ I have just taken delivery of my goods worth millions, which I was still stocking when the fire started.
If the Rivers State Fire Service had responded immediately when we called them, it wouldn’t have been this bad’’.
A design expert and architect, Ebi Bozimo, noted that there was a building defect that is trending across the country.
Bozimo, who is the Vice Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Architect, Rivers State Chapter, observed that developers build houses without taking fire disasters into consideration.
According to him,’’ some losses due to fire disasters are preventable, only that developers don’t bother about fire safety, no quick exit or safety exit in the event of fire outbreaks, the interstices between buildings are never given to specification and so during fire disasters, the victims are in confusion of where to go or what to do.
Worst still, property owners do not make provisions for fire fighting equipments in their buildings’’.
Efforts to reach the owner of the building were not successful as she was said to have been taken to an undisclosed hospital, due to the fire disaster.

Tonye Nria-Dappa