The burnt shops, located a few metres away from the palace of the Deji of Akure, Oba Ogunlade Aladetoyinbo, could have been saved but fire fighters said they did not have fuel in their vehicles to drive to the location.
According to SR, no fewer than 30 lock-up stores and offices were destroyed by the heavy midnight fire. Computer accessories, electronics and office documents were among the properties and goods lost to the inferno.
It was gathered that the fire broke out from one of the shops around 1:30 am and spread to the other adjourning shops.
Several sources said that the fire was caused by power surge in one of the lock-up stores in the annex office of the local government.
Recounting her loss to SR, Mrs. Funmilayo Abayomi, one of the affected shop owners, said the damage to her shop was worth more than N500,000.
She blamed the officers of the State Fire Service for their late response to the fire incident, which could have been averted.
"I received the call around 12:30 am that my shop was on fire and by the time I rushed down, everything had already burned into ashes," she said.
"My colleagues and I lost computers and documents to the fire. In fact, we tried to reach the office of the State Fire Service but they were not responding to their calls till the shops and offices got burnt. It was later that some fire service officials from the airport showed up when the whole place had gone up in flames."
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