No fewer than 26 shops were destroyed in an early morning fire at Bariga Market, Lagos State, on Wednesday, leaving goods worth millions of naira in ruins.
The incident occurred around 4 a.m., barely 24 hours after the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) held a summit on emergency response in the state.
LASEMA Permanent Secretary, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said in a statement that emergency responders arrived to find several key-clamp shops already engulfed in flames.
“Further information gathered at the scene revealed that the fire started from one of the shops and quickly spread to others because the key-clamp shops were supported and partitioned with wooden frameworks,” Oke-Osanyintolu explained.
He added that the fire was contained through the joint efforts of emergency responders and prevented from spreading to other sections of the market.
“The incident scene was proactively managed to avoid any secondary incidents,” he said.
While the cause of the fire has yet to be determined, the agency confirmed that 26 shops were affected. No lives were lost and no injuries were reported.
The Bariga market fire comes two weeks after seven people were confirmed dead following a separate fire at Afriland Towers on Lagos Island. That incident, one of two major fires that hit the Lagos Island Business District in September, also left several others injured and destroyed goods worth millions of naira.
