Abuja fire outbreak: Minister directs NEMA to assess damage for relief items – www.cliptvonline.com ~

*Sympathizes with victims

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA–THE Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has directed the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, to assess the extent of damage at the Tipper Garage Market fire outbreak, in Gwarimpa, Abuja with a view to immediately providing relief materials to victims.

The minister in a statement, Thursday night by her Special Assistant on Media,Nneka Ikem Anibeze, said she was “deeply saddened by the fire incident that razed the Tipper Garage Market on 3rd Avenue in Gwarimpa area of Abuja in the early hours of Thursday, February 5, 2021.”

Umar-Farouq, who sympathized with the traders especially those who lost their lives in the inferno described the outbreak as tragic.

were said to be trapped in their stalls having passed the night there.

According to eyewitnesses, a faulty electrical spark in one of the locked-up shops was the cause of the inferno.

Reports said the fire which started at midnight lasted over two hours before it was put out by the men of the FCT Fire Service.

Goods worth millions of Naira went up in flames while several other traders sustained various degrees of burns while many houses around the market were also affected by the fire.

“The Minister sympathizes with families and relatives of the dead and prays God to grant them eternal rest,” the statement said.