Fire destroys 25 rooms, 12 shops in llorin

No less than 25 rooms belonging to different family members of Ola-Oti Compound and 12 shops were razed in an inferno that occurred in Kankatu area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Monday.

An eyewitness told the News Agency of Nigeria that the fire started around 2am on Monday.

The witness added that the inferno lasted over four hours, destroying valuables worth millions of naira.

Consequently, all occupants of Ola-Oti compound, Kankantu area in the Ilorin East Local Government Area had been rendered homeless by the fire.

None of the occupants of the affected buildings and shops could ascertain the cause of the fire.

One of the victims, Kale Yero, said a tanker driver who passed through the road in the midnight sighted the fire and alerted the residents of the area.

Yero said it took some officials from the Kwara State Fire Service over four hours before they could bring the raging fire under control in the early hours of Monday.

The Head of Fire Prevention at the state Fire Service, Alhaji AbdulWaheed Yakub, told  NAN that the fire could have been caused by an electrical fault.

Yakub said the damage from the fire was enormous because of several combustible materials stored in  the affected buildings and shops.