Again, fire gut Marian market and State Fire Service illequiped to respond

Goods worth millions of naira went into flame as the fire gut shops at the Marian Market in Calabar on Saturday, January 21, 2023.

The Fire according to eyewitnesses started in the early hours about 3 am Saturday when it inflamed from one of the shops.

Although the cause of the inferno cannot be ascertained by victims and sympathizers as at the time of filing this report some of the victims and sympathizers were busy trying to quench the remaining fire as they lamented the inept attitude of the state fire service to respond to emergencies as a call was made to them at the early stage of the incident but unanswered only to be informed that the fighting trucks had no diesel.

And among some of the severely affected is a cold room with fresh meat and fish, a chemist shop, a shop stacked with soft drinks, beer, and other liquor as well as a make-up studio et cetera.

All calls made by media houses to the Cross River State and Federal Fire Service for comment on the incident were naught as their numbers were switched off.

It would be recalled that fire outbreaks at the Marian market have been a reoccurring decimal causing shop owners and traders to lose goods resulting in untold hardships.

By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)