Lamentations of Alesinloye fire tragedy

Trader who got N9m military wear contract says: Everything I just bought burnt to ashes
Woman who just stocked her layers of shops with bicycles, others lose over N100m goods

For traders at a section of the popular Aleshinloye Market in Ibadan, Oyo State, Saturday began not with the familiar sounds of bargaining, movement of goods and the bustle of commerce, but with distress calls, frantic phone conversations and the devastating sight of their shops being consumed by fire.

An early morning fire, which reportedly started between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., destroyed at least four shops and affected others, leaving traders counting losses estimated at hundreds of millions of naira.

The incident, which occurred when most traders were still at home, turned what should have been another busy market day into a morning of grief for shop owners whose businesses represented years of savings, investment and livelihood.

For some of the victims, the fire did not merely destroy goods; it wiped out the means through which they fed their families and sustained their businesses.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the fire was first noticed by security personnel keeping watch over the market in the early hours of Saturday. One of the night watchers reportedly noticed flames coming from a shop and raised the alarm, prompting calls to some of the affected traders.

By the time the distress calls reached the shop owners and firefighters were contacted, however, the flames had gained considerable strength.

Some traders raced to the market, hoping to save their merchandise, but many arrived to meet an already raging fire.

The fire eventually ravaged the shops, while adjoining businesses suffered varying degrees of damage from the flames, heat and smoke.

The extent of the destruction was particularly painful because several of the affected shops were fully stocked with merchandise.

One of the victims of the early Saturday morning inferno lost goods estimated to be worth over N100 million.

The female trader, who owns American Kiddies Place and sells mainly children bicycles and other kids items, was said to have seven different layers in the shop and recently stocked up the shop.

She arrived at the shop on Saturday morning and found that the shop was one of the most affected as the entire goods inside burnt to ashes.

Another trader who deals in curtain materials also lamented his situation, saying he arrived in the morning to behold his life investment in ashes.

One of the shop owners was said to have just got a contract with the military to the tune of N9 million. He was said to have bought all the materials to sew military wear.

READ ALSO: Aleshinloye fire incident: Oyo CP advises traders on future preventive strategies

However, his shop was not spared as the fire razed it completely, burning the entire items he bought for sewing.

Another trader, Sunday Adeniyi, said he received information around 5:00 a.m. that his shop was on fire and immediately rushed to the market, only to discover that the fire had already engulfed his shop and that of others.

“There was nothing I could do. The clothing materials were all burnt down. The other three shops beside mine also got completely burnt. They were the three particular shops that the fire affected the most,” he said.

“It was even the night watcher that alerted us to what was going on. By the time we called the firefighters, the shop had already burned,” he said.

“There was no one among us who could pick anything out of the shop. It was completely burnt down. I lost about N20 million to the incident. The painful thing is that I have completed some of the works ready for pickup by customers.”

At the scene, the devastation was evident as traders and shop owners moved around the affected area, examining what remained of their businesses and trying to salvage whatever could still be recovered.

But for another trader, an Alhaja who operates Folks Stores, the fire was not merely a warning; it was the loss of an entire investment.

Selling kitchen utensils, she arrived at the market after receiving a call from the night watchers around 5:46 a.m.

She said she immediately contacted her husband and son before rushing to the market.

“We don’t know what exactly caused the fire. The night watchers called me this morning around 5:46 a.m. that something was burning in my shop. I called my husband and my son,” she said.

Although they arrived before the shop was completely consumed, there was little they could do.

“We got to the shop before everything got burnt, but there was nothing we could do to put out the fire. It all burned, everything, right in front of our eyes, but we couldn’t do anything,” she said.

She said she even had the key to the shop but was unable to get close enough to open it because of the intensity of the flames.

Another trader, Ife Awe, said the tragedy came as a shock after he woke up to an unusually high number of missed calls.

Awe said he immediately sensed that something was wrong when he saw about 40 missed calls on his phone.

“As a Nigerian, when I saw the missed calls, I knew something bad had happened in the shop. So, within five minutes, I was already at the shop,” he said.

On arriving at the market, he saw firefighters battling the flames and realised the seriousness of the situation.

“I saw fire and firefighters, so I knew something had gone wrong,” he said.

Awe said he was informed that the fire started in the early hours of the morning, although he could not confirm the exact time.

He was, however, fortunate that his own shop was several shops away from where the fire originated.

“Fortunately for us, my own part of the shop was five shops away from where the fire began, and we were able to pack out our things from my own side,” he said.

Despite the effort, he said his shop was still affected, with the ceiling and electrical wires damaged by the fire.

A near-tragic event also occurred to a sympathiser at the scene when, after she told the victim she came to commiserate with that she was leaving. As she attempted to move from the scene, she fell into the drainage.

She got seriously injured and she was rushed to a nearby hospital from where she was referred to the Oluyoro Hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment.

Though the cause of the fire had yet to be officially established as of the time of filing this report, the affected traders are left to confront the difficult task of rebuilding their businesses after watching years of investment go down.