Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has been urged to ensure establishment of a mini-fire station at a major plank market at Alaro area of Sango in Ibadan.
The call was against the backdrop of fire disaster that destroyed more than 250 shops and multi-million goods as well as equipment in the market on this year’s Christmas Day, though there was no casualty.
General Secretary of Ibadan Timber Dealers Association, Mr. Gbenga Fashoro, and a cross section of traders in the market made the appeal to the state government when Sunday Sun visited the market.
Fashoro promised that the authorities of the market would provide land for the government to build the mini-fire station, adding that fire disaster has become yearly occurrence in the market but the tragedy that truck the market on Friday was the worst so far.
According to eyewitnesses, the inferno began at about 2pm on Friday from a building adjacent to the plank market, probably as a result of gas explosion. Balls of fire from the explosion reportedly flew from the story building and landed on some shops close to the house.
A trader stated that but for the quick intervention of men of Oyo State Fire Service, the whole market would have been laughed off by the raging inferno. As gathered, the fire did not stop until the early hours of Saturday.
One of the early callers to the razed market is Mr. Abiodun Awoleye, representing Ibadan North Federal Constituency in the National Assembly. He was said to have sympathised with the traders and promised to sink a borehole for the traders in a bid to solve the problem of water scarcity in the plank market.
Though, General Secretary of Ibadan Timber Dealers Association, Fashoro, could not give estimate of the worth of the planks and equipment being used by the traders and artisans in the market, he simply put it as millions of naira. At time of filing tbis report, the items destroyed by the fire and their monetary values were still being compiled.
But he further stated that the list compiled so far included 12,000 doors valued at N7,500 each; 40 plaining machines with each costing N500,000; 100 generators each costing N200,000.
Apart from the market, the fire also razed four houses very close to the market partially.
Though the leadership of the market could not give the exact figure of all the shops in the plank market, they said almost half of the market was burnt.
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