Posted by From Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin on
PROPERTY worth millions of naira were yesterday destroyed in an inferno that gutted a two-storey building on Taiwo Road, Ilorin.
PROPERTY worth millions of naira were yesterday destroyed in an inferno that gutted a two-storey building on Taiwo Road, Ilorin.
The worst hit was the second floor, where items identified as computer hard-wares were reduced to aches.
The incident, according to witnesses, started at 1 p.m. and took men of the state's fire brigade service over two hours to put out the fire.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but sources said the incident might be due to an attempt by operators of the computer centre to put on a faulty generator, following an outage in the area.
"In the process, a huge smoke emerged and everybody started running helter-skelter trying to put out the fire, until when we discovered that the fire was more than what we could contend with," said one of the computer operators under anonymity.
The incident caused heavy traffic on Taiwo Road, as motorists resorted to passing through Hospital Road and Oja Iyi bye-pass.
Reacting to the incident, the owner of the computer business out-fit identified as FME computer, Mr. Joshua Ogunlowo, said he could not yet ascertain the magnitude of the damage caused by the fire.
According to Ogunlowo, a former Secretary to Kwara State Government under the regime of ex-governor of the state, Alhaji Sha'aba Lafiagi, "I was at the premises of the state's high court when the distress call came to me."
The landlord of the premises, Mr. Duro Agboola, who was an ex-Deputy Speaker of the state's House of Assembly, thanked God that nobody died in the unfortunate incident."