Fire razes building at Asutan Street

BY PRISCILLA CHRISTOPHER

A storey building housing about 10  rooms at Asutan Street, off Wellington Bassey Way in Uyo was on Sunday, the 4th of April 2015 engulfed by fire, resulting in the loss of properties worth millions of naira.
Information reaching our news desk has it that the inferno was caused by a high voltage power supply from the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) after days of total blackout.

Speaking on the incident, a resident of the house, Mr. Mboutidem Archibong explained that the fire began it course from his room while he was out for business. He confirmed the cause of the incident to be the inability of his stabilizer to withstand the high voltage of power supply from the PHEDC and lamented the inability of the state Fire Service to put out the fire.

According to Mboutidem, the men of the Fire Service could not carry out their job effectively due to the limited essentials they came with, adding that they would have salvaged the situation when they arrived since the fire was burning only in his room.

Mr. Mbuotidem who lamented his lost possessions in the inferno observed that his credentials and academic certificates from Primary to Tertiary institution and other valuables were all consumed by the fire.

Also speaking, Mboutidem’s mother, Mrs. Uduak Archibong, who witnessed the fire expressed that she was downstairs with her daughter when someone raised an alarm about the burning room upstairs. “The fire started in my last son’s room and we quickly called him (Mbuotidem) and immediately called the State Fire Service, but to my greatest surprise, the fire service came with little or no water in their tank and could not salvage the situation”. She said.

Though no life was lost in the inferno, Mr. Mboutidem Archibong has called out to the government and public-spirited individuals to come to their aid at this period of need.