A Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) office, a eatery and four others have been razed by fire in Calabar, Cross River State, displacing the operators and others.
The fire disaster that lasted for several minutes started from one of the business outlets before spreading to others, destroyed property worth millions of Naira.
Eyewitnesses narrated on Saturday that the inferno occurred yesterday and began around 12 a.m along Atimbo area in Calabar, when occupants of the business outlets had left.
Residents said the blaze, which broke out suddenly, spread rapidly and left nothing to salvage for the business owners after the inferno was put out.
Though the exact cause of the fire had not been officially confirmed at the time of filing this report, many residents suspect it was triggered by electrical sparks following a series of outages and power fluctuations throughout the day.
A resident, Nkoyo Effiom, who described the scene as heartbreaking, said: “I couldn’t sleep again. I ran out when I saw people shouting. These shop owners are good neighbours; it’s painful to see their livelihood gone overnight”.
Another resident, Samuel Ezeugo, said the community had been experiencing incessant power cuts during the day. “Effiom confirmed there were several outages, which might have led to the sparks and, eventually, this terrible fire,” he added.
Efforts to contact the spokesperson of the fire service in the State proved abortive as his numbers were switched off.
