There was a fire outbreak at the Basorun market in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Thursday, 19 January, 2023.
Many shops were gutted by the fire that reportedly started late Thursday night at the Basorun Market.
Men of the fire service have put out the fire as traders scrambled to salvage what is left.
The latest incident occurred barely a week after fire razed the popular Araromi spare parts market in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Many have bemoaned their loss of multimillion naira goods to the inferno.
It was gathered that the incident which affected about 25 shops occurred around 2am and was caused by indiscriminate burning of refuse. The shop owners had left for their homes without quenching the burning refuse which spread to the shops.
Speaking with one of Punch correspondents, one of the spare parts sellers, Olajide Ige, stated that the fire affected many shops. Many of his colleagues also counted their losses.
Some of the traders identified as Sikiru Bashiru, Yetunde Ibikunle and Hassan Olanrewaju, lamented the fate that befell them.
Bashiru, who is a welder said: “I have had a similar experience before in 2016, where I lost over N2.5m. Nobody, including the government, came to my assistance. I had to obtain a loan of about N5m to start my business again, and now fire again razed my shops despite the fact that I had yet to repay the loan I took.’’
Also speaking, Ibikunle who sold cold sachet water and soft drinks said she took a loan too to start the business, adding the freezers, generators and other valuables she recently bought were destroyed by the fire.
She said: “I started the business about eight years ago and I have never experienced such an incident. I just bought some of the goods that were destroyed by the fire. The generator, freezers and some other things I could not immediately remember were lost to the inferno before dawn.’’
