Fire on Tuesday razed a storey building in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, destroying several properties worth millions of naira.
It was learnt that the building, located on 83, Forestry road in Benin, the state capital, had rented apartments at the top floor while different business centres and a generator store were accommodated below.
The fire started at about 6pm when most of the shop owners had closed for the day.
The tenants were said to have quickly rushed out of the building when they noticed the fire.
It was learnt that nobody sustained any injury.
When our correspondent got to the scene, a large crowd of sympathisers was seen on the street while some of the tenants struggled to salvage some of their belongings.
Operatives of the state fire service were also seen making efforts to put off the fire which completely destroyed the building.
An eyewitness, Chinedu Victor, said that the fire may have been caused by an electric surge, as power supply was interrupted when it broke out.
Victor said, “It was an electric surge. There was power supply then but it has been interrupted now. The fire service people came after 15 minutes.
“There were many rooms there. But everybody was rescued. Nobody was injured.”
One of the tenants, Sarah Etiben, who wept uncontrollably said that she had sighted the flame from the location of her workplace but did not know that it came from her house.
Etiben said, ”Somebody just called me that our house was burning. My workplace is not too far from here. I saw the flame and thought it was from another place.
“I cannot really explain what happened. My mother and siblings lived in the building but I cannot find them now.”
The fire was still raging as of the time of filling the report.
[Okere/Punch]
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