Shop owners retired for the night looking forward to a more prosperous Monday but had no inkling what was in stock for them that around 1:30 am in Zone 7, Dawaki-Dutse Road, their shops comprising of a computer/game center, dry cleaning outfit, provision store, a restaurant/bar and a barbing salon were burnt down as a result of an electrical fault in one of the shops.
THE HERALD was there to help quench the fire from spreading to other parts of the area while the FCT Fire Services were called up. It however took the fire services close to 30 minutes to arrive as a result of the bad road which has been left abandoned by the Bwari Local government. They however prevented the fire from causing more damage to other shops.
The night was cut short as shop owners were bemoaning their losses. The owner of the provision store Madam CJ who understandably declined to speak was the most affected as her shop is the biggest there and was well stocked with daily needs. She was uncontrollable as she was drowned in her tears. It was gathered that she has lost over N2million and is at a fix how to repay her loan she got from a micro-finance bank.
Other shop owners close by defied the smoke and heat coming out from the burning shops to packing their wares, thus preventing them from being burnt.
Residents passed the blame to the PHCN whom they reportedly called upon several times to fix the wires around the pole that sparks every now and then which could have ignited the fire in one of the shops.
