By Egufe Yafugborhi

WARRI—A dumpsite fire, aided by harmattan haze, spread into a cluster of shops, yesterday, at the Okumagba Estate Roundabout, Warri, Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State, razing property worth millions of naira.

Obinna Okechukwu, an eyewitness, said residents in the area were woken up midnight by the inferno, which strayed in from an unmanaged dumpsite fire that was left burning through Saturday night.

Okechukwu said: “We immediately raised an alarm to attract other neighbours and quickly mobilised to see what could be done to salvage whatever we could before fire fighters will arrive.

“The fire was spreading from shop to shop. It was a cluster of shops of mainly wooden structures. We had to bring down one of the shops to break the spread. The fire had been curtailed before fire fighters arrived the scene at about 4.10a.m.”

Some shop owners were in tears at the scene, while counting their losses, as others engaged the services of carpenters to commence some repair works on their shops.

Nine shops, mostly containing electronic appliances and sundry wares were the worst affected by the inferno.