Ketu fire

Kazeem Ugbodaga

At least, 100 shops and three cars have been burnt in an early morning fire which engulfed Jakande Market at Ikosi, Ketu area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Fire servicemen, officials of the Lagos State Fire State Fire Service and others battled the fire after they have been notified of the inferno.

The fire was said to have begun around 4.00am, with goods worth multi-millions of naira destroyed in the inferno.

“The fire started at about 4:00am on 28th of January, 2016 at Jakande market, Ikosi-Ketu. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, but parts of planks section, banana section, and section where tyres are sold have been burnt down by fire,” says Michael Akinde, General Manager, LASEMA.

“Three vehicles were also burnt completely, several numbers shops were completely. However, no life was lost to the inferno and nobody sustained injury but goods worth fortunes were burnt,” Akindele added.

According to him, “the combined effort of LASEMA’s Emergency Response Team, ERT and the Lagos State Fire service from Alausa and Ilupeju stations were able to curtailed the fire from spreading further and causing more havoc.”

Akindele added that goods worth fortunes were salvaged, saying that men of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS and police officers from Ketu Police Station were on ground to provide security.

He said post disaster assessment would be conducted by LASEMA accordingly, while advising market authorities to put in place safety and emergency preparedness measures such as fire hydrant to avert and adequately respond to fire incidents and other emergencies.

Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe said three trucks with 10,000 litres of water each were mobilised to the scene of the fire to quell it.

Several traders were left to recount their huge losses as the inferno caused great devastation to the market.