Scores of traders, who specialise in buying and selling illegally-refined petroleum products, are currently licking their wounds after fire gutted a section of the Ogbe-Ijoh Iron Market in Warri, Delta State on Tuesday evening.
Although no life was reportedly lost to the inferno, the market, built of iron by the Chief James Ibori-led administration, which is yet to be inaugurated, has been a notorious haven for products from illegal refineries.
Tuesday’s incident, which occurred at about 5:30p.m, was allegedly ignited by one of the traders who was trying to test the product she had just bought.
Eye-witnesses, who spoke separately to Nigerian Tribune late Tuesday, said it all started when the lady, who was a kerosene seller, wanted to test the content of her consignment in order to convince her customer that the product was kerosene.
The trader, according to the eye-witness who declined being identified, poured a little quantity of the kerosene on the bare floor as they usually do when they want to sell, struck a match on it and then, a clangorous explosion ensued.
The explosion swiftly spread to adjourning shops where similar illegally-refined products are sold as well as shops harboring assorted dried fish.
An eye-witness, Miss Esther Godspower, who’s a student of the Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara, who just returned from school to help her mum in her hair making business, said that the fire started at exactly 5:25p.m.
“I was busy with my phone when a little girl said to her mum, “mummy, see fire.” Like play, like play, the fire wey no reach anything na once the thing come dey big dey enter everywhere.
“My mum and my sister no dey and load full ground to pack, I say make I call my mom, I said no, say the time wey I go take call her, I go don use am pack some things.
“Naso market scatter oo. Na once I pack all the phones, and the money dem put for the bag wey I carry because na this kind time dem take dey thief pass.
“Everybody begin run helter skelter dey pack load comot from their shops before those wey they sabi thief go come.
“Because if market dey burn like this, na mighty opportunity for thieves. Na so I begin dey rush dey pack load before my mum come join me as we dey pack the goods naso many dey fall for ground and if you go back you no go see anything again,” she lamented in pidgin.
Miss Godspower decried the fact that her mum just stocked her shop with goods two days earlier ahead of the Christmas celebration.
“The thing pain me well well ooo I dey hope say as I come sef I go work so that I go see my house rent and school fees money carry go school na this kind thing come dey happen. This thing weak me,” while thanking God not allowing the fire to spread to her mum’s salon.
As of the time Nigeria Tribune got to the scene of the fire incident, men of the Delta State Fire Service were already battling the raging inferno while scores of youths were seen discussing the incident and others taking still and video clips of the incident.
Some of the traders, who were seen briskly packing and relocating handy goods from their shops, however, alleged the fire fighters arrived the scene about 30 minutes after the fire started.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, Dr Michael Tidi, in his reaction to the incident, blamed the inferno on the untoward activities of traders in illegally-refined petroleum products.
He warned traders in the illicit products to desist from the trade and seek other lawful means of livelihood.
Fire outbreak at Ogbe-Ijoh market has become a yearly ritual which usually occurs during the Yuletide or January, often rendering traders impoverished.
Reports gathered said fire usually occurred at the Iron Market section where such substandard petroleum products are sold at least twice a year.
The market, located a stone throw from Warri River, makes easy access to ferrying of illegally-refined crude oil products from camps in the creeks.
The menace, which is consistently ravaging the ecosystem of the Niger Delta environment, has witnessed stiff sting operations by members of the Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) which has reportedly recorded successes in recent times.
Commander, OPDS, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, at a press briefing in Yenagoa, a fortnight ago, said in its recently launched Operation 777, no fewer than 436 illegal refineries, 609 Cotonou boats and 1, 507 septic thanks used for the illegality had been confiscated and destroyed across the Niger Delta.
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