Fire Razes Abuja Building Materials Market

ABUJA — A fire outbreak has destroyed shops and goods worth millions of naira at Eda Plaza, a building materials market opposite Chida Hotel in Jabi, Abuja.

The fire reportedly started in the early hours, with an eyewitness telling the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) that an alarm was raised at about 3 a.m. after his brother-in-law, who owns two shops and a packing store at the plaza, received a distress call from a colleague.

“We were at home this morning, as early as 3:00am, and my brother-in-law received a call from one of his colleagues here in the plaza that the plaza was on fire. So we had to rush down there. On getting here, we discovered that the situation was so bad,” the eyewitness said.

He said one of the two shops belonging to his brother-in-law was saved, while the other shop and the packing store were completely destroyed. He estimated the value of roofing materials lost at more than N20 million, adding that some of the materials had been supplied only a day earlier.

“In this plaza, my brother-in-law had two shops and a packing store. Unfortunately, only one of the shops was saved. The other shop and the packing store were totally damaged by the fire,” he added.

The eyewitness said there were no casualties in the incident.

However, the Federal Fire Service has since confirmed its involvement. Its National Public Relations Officer and Head of Corporate Services, Deputy Controller of Fire Paul Abraham, told Vanguard that a distress call concerning the Eda Plaza fire was received at 2:46 a.m.

Abraham said the Federal Fire Service, working with the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service, deployed firefighting appliances from its Wuse, Interior Ministry and Garki stations to combat the blaze. He said a stop message was issued at 10:14 a.m., indicating that the fire had been brought under control.

The cause of the fire and the full extent of the damage had yet to be officially established.