Fire guts properties worth millions in Port Harcourt


Tina Amanda

A mechanic workshop housing twenty-one tricycles popularly known as Keke has been burnt on the Eagle Cement Road Rumuolumeni in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

The fire which destroyed some shops was said to have been caused by petroleum product that was being transferred from one tank to another.

In an interview with our correspondent, the owner of the mechanic workshop, Emeka Azi, recalled that he got a distress call at about 2 am on Monday only to discover that his business premises and other peoples’ tricycles in his workshop have been burnt to ashes.

According to him, those responsible for the fire have fled the area.

“When we came out to fight the fire, luckily we were able to put it out. We later got to know that it was a lady who deals in Petroleum products that caused the inferno, they were using a generator and a pumping machine to discharge fuel and in the process, it gutted burst into fire.

“It burnt down over twenty-one tricycles, shops, properties and goods worth millions. I have been searching for the lady who owns the fuel business and she is nowhere to be found, her phone lines are switched off.”

Some of the affected victims of the incident also said the culprits must pay for the damage as they have lost all their sources of livelihood