A fire outbreak, on Monday engulfed a building in Javino, an area of Gauraka in Tafa Local Government Area of Niger, The Informant247 Nigeria News.
According to some eyewitnesses, the inferno was caused by activities at the building where fuel was stored illegally.
They confirmed that as a result of fuel scarcity in the country, the owner of the fuel tank was said to also store diesel in tanks for sale to customers as ‘black market’.
According to report, the owner at about 6:35am attempted to use a pumping machine to fill an iron keg leading to the fire outbreak.
It was gathered that the fire rose to consume other tanks containing fuel and diesel, a few shops around, and the roof of a building under construction.
It was also learned that after about 30 minutes of inferno, the Niger State Fire Service arrived at the scene to salvage the situation but later ran out of water.
Meanwhile, a private organization, Empire Energy Limited that was close by, was alerted and arrived with their fire truck and helped quench the fire completely.
Linda Albert, one of the eyewitnesses, wants the dealers of such goods taken away from residential area.
She said, “Early this morning, we heard fire and we came out it was really a bad sight but we thank God that the fire is out.
“If the government can help us take these people away from here. This is a residential area and imagine if this fire incident started in the night, lives would have been lost.”