A fire outbreak at Borikiri area of Port Harcourt that saw community boys at battle to put it off subsequently pitched the boys against the fire-fighting service as the community boys and people in the area complained that the fire fighters arrived too late and so should go back from where they were coming from.
The inferno which started about 7pm Friday-9th September, 2012 at No. 20 Etche Street, Borikiri quickly spread to other adjoining rooms in the building including stores and saloon. Incidentally, according to one Mr. Mba Gabriel, an indigene of Imo State whose two bedroom flat was affected noted the state owned fire fighters did not come quickly to put off the fire adding that it took concerned young boys within the area to put off the fire while the Borikiri police station ensured safety of lives and property by barricading one part of the road in order to keep off hoodlums from possibly looting properties.
Mr. Mba further revealed that the most painful aspect of the fire incident was that when it broke out some of the people affected were not around to help fight it or quench it.
When asked whether the building was insured by the landlord, Mr. Mba said … “I don’t know whether the building was insured, I don’t know.
Another tenant Mrs. Kabuika lamented thus when asked of her experience. “I wasn’t around when everything happened so before I came back from my shop everything has happened. I was actually at UPE when I got a call that my house was on fire, but because of the Borikiri hold up I could not meet up”, she lamented.
Mrs. Kabuika further claimed that boys within the area who put off the fire sustained serious injuries and this angered them hence when the fire brigade arrived late the boys chased them back in anger. She pointed out that she saw the fire fighters on their way back thinking they were the ones that put off the fire. In all she said, about seven families suffered serious losses due to the fire outbreak as they were all living in the same building concluding that inasmuch as the entire building was not insured, they will do something to help themselves. ###
Bennett James
