Fire destroys shops at Abuja building materials market

A fire broke out on Sunday and destroyed shops and goods worth millions of naira at Eda Plaza. This building materials market is located opposite Chida Hotel in Jabi, Abuja.

A video from the scene shared by the Nigerian Television Authority shows shop owners rushing to save their goods.

An eyewitness told NTA that the alarm went off around 3 am on Sunday. His brother-in-law, who owns two shops and a packing store in the plaza, got a distress call from a colleague.

He said that thankfully, there were no casualties. The eyewitness explained, “We were at home this morning, as early as 3 am, and my brother-in-law received a call from one of his colleagues here in the plaza that the plaza was on fire. So we had to rush down there. On getting here, we discovered that the situation was so bad.”

When they arrived, he said the fire had spread widely, leaving only one of his brother-in-law’s two shops standing. “In this plaza, my brother-in-law had two shops and a packing store. Unfortunately, only one of the shops was saved. The other shop and the packing store were totally damaged by the fire,” he added.

The eyewitness estimated the loss of roofing materials in the fire at over N20 million. He expressed sadness that some of the destroyed materials had just been installed the night before. “Over here, you see some of the roofs that we still have here. We are talking about a roof that is worth over N20 million lost in this fire,” he said. He continued, “Because the other shop, we had roofs that were just restocked last night. And then the packing store also, we had roofs that were just restocked last night.”

He felt some comfort that no lives were lost despite the heavy losses. “In our situation, we give thanks to God that no life was lost in this situation,” he said.

PUNCH Online tried to reach the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service for a comment but did not succeed before this report was filed. However, the head of the Julius Berger firefighters’ team, which responded to the fire, said the situation was under control.

“We were called by a quarter to 4:00 in the morning to help put out the fire. We had two fire engines, two fire water tankers, and eight firemen that helped extinguish this fire. It took us approximately four hours to… with the help, obviously, of the Federal Fire Department, to get this fire under control.”

He advised people to evacuate buildings during a fire and not to interfere with firefighters. “In case of fire, evacuate the building and don’t disturb the firefighters doing their job. This is what is actually happening here. Everybody is inside there. I understand they try to save their possessions, but this is life. Life matters, and safety first.”