The Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Department (FEMD) reported that a lack of access delayed efforts to extinguish the fire at Karu Old Market in Abuja on Thursday.
Mrs. Florence Wenegieme, the acting director-general of the department, made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja. She emphasized the importance of ensuring fire service personnel and trucks can access markets, public, and private buildings during fire emergencies to minimize losses.
According to Wenegieme, the fire began around 6:30 pm and was controlled by a combined team from FEMD, FCT Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, and Julius Berger Fire Service, preventing it from spreading to nearby houses.
She clarified that it was not the new Karu Market under construction that caught fire, but an informal market and settlement behind the new market. “There are fire stations at two locations in Karu; we have the Karu Fire Station and a fire station and firefighting truck in the new Karu Market under construction. Firefighting trucks arrived at the scene of the fire on time but could not get access to the market to put out the fire on time. We had to break walls to pass the firefighting water hoses through to be able to put out the fire,” she said.
Wenegieme noted that goods worth millions of naira were lost, but no lives were lost. She added that personnel from the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Army, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps were present for crowd control.
She thanked the Department of Engineering, Federal Capital Development Authority, for activating Julius Berger Fire Service to provide necessary support and mentioned that an investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.