Bonny/Bille/Nembe Waterside Bouncing Back After Fire

Two weeks after the early morning fire that gutted and destroyed Bonny/Bille/Nembe waterfront, business and life are gradually returning to the area.
From the entrance of the new jetty and loading bay constructed by the Rivers State Government, passengers and boat operators are back in full swing, as cargoes and wares are wheeled in and out of the waterfront.
The site of burnt boats, engines and smell of smouldered plastics and other goods burnt in the inferno have gradually given way to new speedboats and other cargo lunches used by the Nembe fish and timber traders.
A lady who sells sachet water in bags at the front of the loading bay at Nembe waterfront told The Tide Metro that she lost over 100bags of her goods to the fire.
According to her, when the fire broke out in the middle of the night that fateful day, her sachet water bags were used to put out the fire. “I came in the morning and could not find any of my goods here. They told me it was used to quench the fire.”
In her estimation, she lost about N50,000 to the incident. She said, “As you can see, I’m trying to recover and it has not been easy after the fire.”
The sachet water seller declined to give her name, stressing that “We have been calling for assistance since after the incident, but nobody has come to assist us”.
The Tide Metro learnt that not fewer than 20 persons, including children died during the inferno. Most of them were asleep in the Nembe big boats, and there were no rescue men to save them.
Beach Master at Bonny Waterfront, Allison Owusigbo said two of his 200horsepower outboard boats got burnt in the inferno.
He said in order to reduce difficulty faced by passengers due to lack of boats, they had to call in boats from neighbouring communities, “most of the boats you are seeing here were brought either from Bonny or any other place. We lost over 100 boats here during the fire.”
For now, Owusigbo said he and many other boat owners are starting afresh, “even if you go for a fairly used engine boat, a medium sized outboard motor engine boat is not less than N3.5million. Each of the boat you see here is not less than N1million, and one 200horse powered engine is about 10million.”
“ If you look around, you will see many drivers are out of job because their boats were burnt. And that is why we want government to come and help us. “
The Bonny Beach Master further disclosed that they incurred huge loss because at the time the fire broke out, many of them had retired home to rest, hence, they could not rescue or save both human beings and materials at the beach.
Appealing to the authorities to build a fire substation at the jetty, Owusigbo reasoned that other measures need to be put in place to avert such incident in the future.
He advised those who lost their boats and goods to take heart, “They don’t need to relent. As far as there is life, there is hope.”
The same view was expressed by Prince Ebijuoworih, Booking Clerk with the Maritime Workers Union at Nembe jetty, “If we had a fire station here, the fire would not have spread to this level.”
“Any boat you see here today may have been outside here, or were brought from Bonny,” he intoned.
Ebijuoworih described the waterfront as, the eye of Rivers State, “This is where many riverine communities come to buy and sell.”
The booking clerk sought for more government presence at the jetty to ensure safety and security at the waterfront.
Favour Michael, who sells electronic products and other goods at the jetty’s entrance, told The Tide Metro, “We are just trying to recover. All my goods were burnt in the fire.”
He continued, over 2,000 persons make daily living from this jetty and since the incident, we have not had any intervention, not even from NEMA.”
Michael said many of them are trying to scratch out something from the few goods that were saved. “The economy of the country is bad, and so it’s only God that we are looking up to.”
What bothers Michael Jaja, another business owner at the jetty is the level of human loss in the inferno. “We can’t quantify the number of people, including children who died in the fire. It will take time for their families to recover.”
He stated that this is not the first time fire broke out at the waterfront, “this is the second this year, but this last one was very huge.”
Asked how the fire started, Jaja narrated that the fire started from one of the big Nembe Market boats when one of the deck hands went to refill the tank of a water pumping machine. While the machine was still steaming, he poured petrol into the tank and fire sparked from the plug and spread.
Another version by Ebijuoworih indicates that the fire broke out when two gas cylinders collided. The gas was being off loaded from one of the Nembe big boats when they collided and burst into flames.
Mr. Michael told The Tide Metro that it was wrong for some people to think that the fire was caused by “kpofire”. This accident can happen anywhere and it is as a result of man-made error”.
Even with the huge loss, the recovery seems to be slow and steady around the waterfront. Business activities still go on with the usual bustle and hustle of Bonny/Bille/Nembe jetty in Old Port Harcourt Township.

By: Kevin Nengia