Photo: Port Harcourt Mile One Market In Flames, Traders Devastated, Millions Of Naira Lost

The famous Mile One Market in Mile One Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was razed by fire in the morning, following a fire outbreak which started in the early hours of today, Tuesday, December 17.  

Some of the eyewitnesses said the fire may have started around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. By 3:40 a.m., the rampaging fire had mercilessly gutted a large portion of the market.
Some firefighters from the Rivers State Fire Service were present as at press time. The fire seems to have surpassed their skill and equipment as it, with multiple explosions, gradually and steadily kept moving to other parts of the market and buildings along the Ikwerre road.
Hundreds of traders, sympathizers and onlookers flooded the area. Some traders were rushed to the hospital for medical attention after discovering that their shops and goods have been destroyed.
To worsen the situation, a driver who stole someone's car loaded with goods while trying to escape from the police patrol van ran over a boy, injuring him badly.
Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed in the accident.
Some residents of the area report gunshots and siren sounds, others say there were explosion sounds as cartons of insecticidesand perfumes were popping due to intense heat.

 The story continues below


The Internet has been buzzing since early morning hours, with bloggers and forums' members expressing their feelings and opinions on the unfortunate accident. One commenter wrote:

"I guess this brings me to the next chapter of my Year Long Series Clueless Government, Clueless followers

Fire Service: It is still rather amazing that all the governments that come into power seem not to appreciate the importance of certain social services like the Fire Service, the Ambulance service, the Police, e.t.c.

A few years ago [in 2007], this same Mile One market was gutted by what would be the biggest fire ever in my history of Rivers State. The fire was so firece that it actually burnt down one of the Fire Service trucks that came to put out the blaze. 

For those who dont know Port-Harcourt very well, The only Fire Service Station in the whole of Port Harcourt that I know of is located very close to this mile one market. Yet I can bet my money that the only competent fire fighters on the scene are not the governments fire fighters, but those of Companies like Shell, Total, Agip and co.. 

After the first fire, the government decided to build a proper market in place of the open stalls and sheds that were there initially. Problem is, the government only built on a small section of the Land, the rest of it slowly but surely went back to being the crazy market that it used to be.. Though in fairness to the government, the new market building had fire fighting equipments built into the property, the lack of development on the remaining portion of the land has now become the source of the new fire.

Now as usual, what would happen would be another clean up, speeches made, promises made, talks of compensation would be discussed but never actualized, people would pick up the pieces, and in 1 months time, this would all have been forgotten..

What about the other Areas of Rivers State that have no access to good Fire Service? Shouldnt there be atleast 1 fire service station in every local government area?!

This is why I keep saying that Nigeria is like a playground of kids.. We play and get injured, we get treated and instead of fixing that which caused us hurt, we just walk around it like it isnt there, until the next person gets injured..."

My heart goes out to the Traders. My Grandmother lost 3 of her shops in the last fire and got scammed out of her claims by the government.

NairaLand