Over 300 persons on Saturday, January 13, 2018, were rendered homeless in Yenagoa after a fire gutted a neighbourhood in Ekeki suburb of the Bayelsa State capital.
It was learnt that the inferno, which occurred at about 2 am, also destroyed valuables worth millions of naira. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained.
Residents of the affected area located behind the Ekeki Divisional Police Station said they lost to the fire items such as generator sets, television sets, bales of fabrics, huge sums of money and phones, among others.
However, no life was lost.
One of the residents, who gave his name simply as Nicholas, suspected that the fire might have been caused by a candle as there was no electricity supply at the break of the fire.
He said that firemen, who arrived at the scene in three vehicles, stopped the fire from spreading to the Ekeki Police Station.
“It happened this morning, some minutes to 2 am. Three fire-fighting vehicles came and stopped the fire. If not it could have entered the police station.
“We don’t know what caused the fire. Whether it was candlelight, we don’t know. But it started with a little smoke coming out from someone’s house and a woman saw it, but she did not tell anybody.
“We are over 300 people living here: families, husbands, and wives and their children.
“One woman lost N300,000 that some persons kept in her custody. Her husband’s money was N120,000.
Everything got burnt; one kobo is not remaining,” Nicholas said.
He appealed to the Bayelsa State government and well-meaning organisations and individuals to come to their aid as they could not salvage their valuables.
