Fire guts popular Offa market in Kwara State
The popular Owode market in Offa, Kwara State has been gutted by fire in the early hours of Tuesday with over twenty shops razed down and properties worth millions of naira destroyed as the fire raged
Penpushing reports that a witness, Bola Olanpekun, said the incident started around 1 a.m. but with quick intervention of the fire service operatives, the fire was curtailed further spread.
The Head, Media and Publicity unit of the Kwara State Fire Service, Hassan Hakeem Adekunle said the intelligence unit of the service was working to ascertain the cause of the incident, adding that electric spark may not be ruled out.
His words, “the cause of the inferno was suspected to be an electric spark, even though the intelligence team of the service are working on that to ascertain the actual cause of the fire outbreak,” .
Penpushing further reports that, a community group, Offa Descendants Union, in reactions by the National Public Relations Officer, Maruf Adenifuja expressed shock over the incident,adding that the extent of the inferno was yet to be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.
“The union has made emissaries to the state government in the past for new fire service trucks and the upgrade of the fire service station in Offa for efficient fire service delivery in order to safeguard lives and properties of the people,but we are still awaiting the positive response of the state government,” the statement read.
