Some residents of Wechele Street have accused one of their former neighbours of being responsible for the devastating fire outbreak that wreaked havoc in the area in the early hours of Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

The fierce fire outbreak, which destroyed properties worth millions of Naira, occurred at Wechele Street in Rumuodara Community in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State, leaving residents in shock and grappling with significant losses.

One of them, who only identified herself as Lillian, revealed that the said neighbour allegedly set the fire as a vendetta for his missing gas cylinder in November 2023.

“The accused individual was reportedly seen packing his belongings around 12midnight to 1am and again around 6am today. A 10-year-old girl, who witnessed the event, told us.”

“The guy packed his things into a Keke at midnight around 1am. This morning, he came back, and shortly after he left, the fire outbreak started from his apartment.”

Accounting to Lilian’s story, the cause of the fire incident, which the little girl shared with them, stemmed from the neighbour’s resentment over a stolen gas cylinder.  

She further disclosed that the alleged culprit, who she said she does not know his name, had made threats last year but was not taken seriously, pointing out that now the community faces the consequences of his alleged revenge.

“I don’t know the guy in particular, but they said the guy have big stomach, according to them, I don’t know the guy but they said he is from Ogoni. I don’t really know. I have not seen the guy facially, that’s what they narrated but whatever he did, he is very wrong. It’s very bad because I will not support bad things.”

“I don’t like seeing this kind of thing happening to people around, it’s unfair. I’m not happy and now he has gone and everybody is facing what they are not supposed to be facing right now.”

Also narrating his experience to Kristina Reports, Emola Vincent, who resides close to where the disaster took place, said they woke to smokes from the incident, describing it as a big loss.

“We just woke up, we haven’t even had our quiet time, we started seeing the flame, so we ran out, so we now made attempts to make sure that we quench the fire, so we have to attract People’s attention and as God will help us, we were able to bring  it down so it doesn’t escalate more than necessary. 

“We thank God for that, except the properties got burnt, as far as life is concern, nobody is injured. Because like a guy here, he travelled, I think works outside and the junior sister living with him, that one travelled since yesterday, so is a big loss.”

As the community comes to terms with the devastating consequences, they grapple with the aftermath, expressing gratitude that no lives were lost but mourning the irreparable loss of properties and essential documents lost due to the senseless act.