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Mystery fire renders 300 homeless, cash, property lost

Mystery fire renders 300 homeless, cash, property lost

More than 300 persons on Saturday were rendered homeless in Yenagoa, after fireĀ  gutted a neighbourhood in Ekeki suburb of the Bayelsa capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learns that the inferno, which occurred at about 2a.m. this morning, also destroyed valuables worth millions of naira. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained.

Residents of the affected area located behind the Ekeki Divisional Police Station said they lost to the fire, items such as generator sets, television sets, bales of fabrics, huge sums of money and phones, among others.

However, no life wasĀ  lost in the fire mishap.

One of the residents, who gave his name simply as Nicholas, suspected that the fire might have been caused by a candle as there was no electricity supply when the incident occurred.

He said that firemen who arrived at the scene in three vehiclesĀ  stopped the fireĀ  from spreading toĀ  the Ekeki Police Station.

ā€œIt happened this morning, some minutes to 2a.m. We have not slept since then till now. Three fire-fighting vehicles came and stopped the fire. If not it could have entered the police station.

ā€œWe donā€™t know what caused the fire.Ā  Whether it was candle light, we donā€™t know. But it started with a little smoke coming out from someoneā€™s house and a woman saw it, but she did not tell anybody.

ā€œWe are over 300 people living here: families, husbands and wives and their children, we are over 300 here.

ā€œOne woman lost N300,000 that some persons kept in her custody. Her husbandā€™s money was N120,000. Everything got burnt, one kobo is not remaining,ā€™ā€™ Nicholas said.

He appealed to the Bayelsa government and well-meaning organisations and individuals to come to their aid as they could not salvage their valuables.