Anguish and tears soured the business climate of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital today after a huge fire said to have been caused by professional indiscretion, completely burnt goods and buildings believed to worth over 200 Hundred Million Naira on Monday, August 2, 2021 at Rumueme Community in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

Rumueme Community shares its Northern boundary with Rumuepirikom Community, home of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

When Kristina Reports’ Emmanuel Nwafor got to the scene of the incident, Monday afternoon, the fire had subsided through communal intervention, but also caused a gridlock traffic situation at Market junction in Rumueme stretching up to Rumuepirikom to Mgbuosimini junction, respectively, as a result of panic and convergence at the fire scene.

Exactly 15 shops consisting of exotic furniture and household items were found to have been burnt to foundation levels and goods shredded in ashes. Staff of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) were seen evacuating poles and wires that had fallen as a result of the conflagration.

A furniture dealer, James Kalu whose goods were totally burnt narrated to Kristina Reports that trouble started when fire alarm was raised by his neighbor who had procured the service of a welder for hot work, apparently in a confined space.

Kalu said the fire started with the burning of foams and got worse in a short while, defying earlier efforts to save the day.

“I was in my office around past 11am when I heard people shouting fire, fire, fire. And when I rushed out, I saw foams on fire, so I rushed to bring out the foam. I managed to pull out one foam and on coming out, I saw that high tension had fallen on the building, so I had to run for my life.”

The Entrepreneur explained the impact of the fire to his business, calling on government and well-meaning individuals to come to his rescue.

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“We lost a lot of properties, I did not bring out even one pin and in just twenty minutes, everything was burnt down, I mean over 10 to 15 million naira gone.”

“I want the government to come to our aid because this can kill me. This is what puts food on our table. There is nothing we can do; it is just to help us start life afresh.” He confirmed that no life was lost but various degrees of injuries were sustained.

Another eyewitness who simply gave his name as Apprentice Kelvin corroborated the position that the fire was caused by the indiscretion of an artisan welder who is believed to now be at large.

“They were welding inside this shop, by mistake we don’t know what happened, we just started hearing fire, fire, fire, we ran out to come and see what was happening, before we knew it, the fire had circulated, the welder is nowhere to be found now.”

He added that goods belonging to his Principal were burnt and efforts to reach the Rivers State Fire Service Command failed as persistent calls that were put across to the Command’s emergency lines were neither answered nor returned.

“Everything that was here burnt down. We couldn’t bring anything out of the shop. We called Fire Service more than 100 times but nobody responded. Even till now they have not come. It was people around that helped to put out the fire.”

He joined voices to call on government at all levels to help them start life afresh, “As a result of this fire, I won’t be coming to work again. My Boss was even crying when he heard what happened. We want Government to help us to rebuild the shops and support us with something to start all over again.”