A fire outbreak on Tuesday destroyed over 40 Batcher houses and displaced many on Onukwuru Street, off Rumuolumeni Road (Iwofe Road), in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The incident, which occurred today Tuesday, left many residents homeless as they lost their homes and valuable belongings to the inferno.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire was caused by negligence. A woman was frying groundnuts over a firewood when another woman attempted to pour kerosene from a jerrycan into a basin nearby.
The woman frying the groundnuts reportedly warned her not to pour the kerosene until the firewood had been extinguished. However, the warning was ignored. As the kerosene was being poured, the flames ignited it, causing the fire to spread rapidly through the area.
Residents made frantic efforts to contain the blaze, but the fire quickly engulfed the makeshift structures, destroying properties worth millions of naira. Fortunately, no loss of life was reported as of the time of filing this report.
Niger Delta Insider was at the scene to cover the incident, where affected residents were seen salvaging whatever they could from the debris while counting their losses.
