Fire guts 2 furniture stores in Osogbo

An early morning inferno, yesterday, destroyed goods and furniture worth millions of naira in two popular furniture stores in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.

A popular furniture store, Art Deco, within a two-storey building and the adjoining two-storey building, where furniture items and materials are sold, were both destroyed by the fire.

Mr Ibrahim Adekunle, spokesman, Osun State Fire Service, said they received a distress call about the fire at about 2:30 a.m. and promptly rushed to the place.

Adekunle said firefighters battled the fire from the time they got to the scene at about 2:30 a.m. until noon before they were able to contain the inferno.

He said: “We were called at about 2.30a.m that fire was razing the Art Deco complex and when we got there, we observed that the fire had started a long, maybe at about midnight.

“I believe it was when they could not put the fire under control that they called us and we had to battle the fire and put it under control at about noon.

“Due to the nature of the materials in the buildings (flammable materials), the fire was massive and it took us time to stop it from spreading to other buildings.

“We have, however, been able to put the fire under control, but materials in the two buildings had been seriously destroyed, while the building next to Art Deco is now on the verge of collapse due to the effect of the fire.”

The spokesman of the fire service said fortunately no life was lost in the incident and commiserated with the owners of the buildings and stores over the incident.

Culled from Vanguard