Fire gutted the Caring Heart Market in Okitipupa, Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State, on the night of Thursday, 12 December, 2024, destroying goods worth millions of naira.
Although the cause of the fire which started on the night of Thursday, 12 December, 2024 cannot yet be ascertained, it was gathered that the incident affected about 18 shops.
No life was lost to the incident.
Preliminary investigations suggest the possibility of a fault in the electric spark in one of the shops.
A block of 18 locked-up shops, stocked with frozen foods including fish, turkey and chicken, were said to be burnt down.
Items such as cash, deep freezers, frozen food items, generating sets, power regulators, fans, solar power installations and other gadgets belonging to the traders were also consumed by the inferno.
The Iyalaje (Market Women Leader) of Idepe, Okitipupa, Chief Florence Irinyemi, told newsmen that it was the security guard at the market who raised the alarm around 1:00 am on Thursday.
She said that traditional ruler of the town, Michael Obatuga quickly alerted the officials of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, who switched off power supply to the market, without which the inferno would have engulfed the entire market.
The women leader appealed to the state government to restore the Okitipupa Fire Service for quick response to combat such inferno in the future.
