Goods and property valued at several millions of naira were destroyed on Friday after a fire outbreak at the popular Saki Garage in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to reports, four out of the eleven shops at the site were affected by the blaze, resulting in significant losses for shop owners.
Confirming the incident, Hon. Moroof Adebayo Akinwande, Special Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Fire Reform and Chairman of the Fire Services Agency, said the agency was alerted by a passerby.
He explained that fire service personnel, led by ACFS Mrs. Adedeji, were quickly deployed to the scene. On arrival, they found four shops already engulfed in flames and immediately worked to contain the fire, preventing it from spreading to adjoining shops and buildings. The fire was eventually extinguished without any loss of life.
Akinwande stated that preliminary findings linked the cause of the fire to unattended burning embers left after the shops had been closed, which ignited combustible materials nearby.
He praised the efforts of the firefighters for saving properties worth millions of naira from destruction and advised the public to be more cautious about fire risks. He also encouraged residents to save emergency fire service numbers on their phones and to install fire extinguishers in their homes as preventive measures.