Tales of woes as Lagos shuts burnt plank market

Traders at the Ketu plank market in Lagos, which was razed on Thursday night, have expressed sadness over the millions of naira worth of goods and equipment lost in the inferno. Two hours after the market was closed for the day on Thursday, the traders rushed back to the market, located on Demurin Street, to see as their shops were being destroyed in the inferno, cause of which authorities have yet to determine.
When our correspondent got to the scene on Friday morning, the traders were seen milling around the rubble of their shops and the charred remains of their wares.
The fire tore through a market as big as a football pitch, living nothing in its path.
Heaps of asbestos smouldered while the little remaining from the planks in the market still gave off smoke.
Smouldering planks were still being battled by fire fighters at the scene, while officials of the state Emergency Management Agency lend a hand in controlling the fire.
The effect of the disaster was evident everywhere as many women held their heads as some men simply stood by because there was nothing to salvage anymore.
A trader, Abdulrazaq Opeloyeru, was seen pulling a big machine out of the rubble. His eyes were red as he told Saturday PUNCH about his woes.
“This is just one of the four machines that I use in my saw mills. I have two shops here, four machines and one generator. All of them have been destroyed in the fire.
“This is a business I built for the last 20 years and everything is gone. Each of those machines cost as much as N500,000.”
Asked if he had other shops in other locations and if he thought the machines could still be repaired, Lawal simply shook his head and moved away.
Another trader, Musibaudeen Ibrahim, stared into the void where his shop once stood. He lost wares worth about N500,000 in his building materials shop, he told our correspondent.
Ibrahim explained that he had three other shops in the market and all were destroyed.
“I started this business about 30 years ago and all my profits have been destroyed here. I don’t even want to think about what next I am going to do because that makes me afraid,” he said.
Salami Lawal, another building material trader at the market said the market closes normally at 7 pm. He said as at the time the fire started. Nobody was in the market.
“Everybody had left. I was in Ikorodu when I got a call about 10 pm that the market was on fire. I simply threw clothes on and rushed here to realise that it was bigger than what I thought. I don’t even want to think about how much I have lost here,” he said.
Director of the state fire service, Mr. Rasaq Fadipe, said when he got to the scene with two trucks, he did not know it was bigger than what he estimated.
He said, “We had to send for three more trucks. Each of the trucks carry ten thousand litres of water.
“Fire that involves plank market is always a big problem but this is not the first time we would be battling such fire; so, we did not have a problem putting it out in time.
“The problem we had was crowd control. There was too much crowd. Some of our officials were manhandled by some of the traders. We are not happy about this. If we had been allowed to do our work immediately we got here, it would not have been this devastating. We would have been able to save a lot more.”
Tales after tales, the traders at the market counted their losses. But their main concern at the moment is what would happen to the site where their shops once stood.
Chairman of the traders’ association at the market,  Alhaji Aliyu Bello, expressed the fear that the traders would be displaced when the state government completes its investigation into the fire.
“The way the fire escalated is suspicious,” he said, not elaborating.
But the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed, told journalists that the concern at the moment was to cordon off the site and investigate the incident.
“There is no discussion on demolition or anything at the moment. The main concern is to put out the fire.
“The site will be cordoned off to prevent collateral damage or secondary problem in this area and to prevent people from endangering their lives. The site will also be fumigated and levelled.
“What would happen to the site is not an issue at the moment. We are just concerned about putting the site in order for now. We still don’t know what caused this fire. That would be revealed in the investigation we would carry out.
“All other things about how the traders will return to their markets would be discussed later,” the commissioner said.
He had earlier held a meeting with the leadership of the market, but when he went into the midst of the traders to address them, they simply shouted him down, insisting that the government only wanted to take away their market.