By Chinenyeh Ozor

Nsukka—PropertY worth millions of naira were reportedly razed by candle light fire in the University town of Nsukka, Enugu State, yesterday.

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It was gathered that the fire started in one of the rooms in the building housing rooms and shops as the tenant was busy attending to customers while the candle gradually melted the rug carpet and spread to other rooms before it was noticed.

The landlord of the building, Emmanuel Aka, who lives in one of the rooms, said he was asleep when he heard people shouting.

He said: “I managed to jump out of the room with the help of friends, only to see the entire building overtaken by fire while people poured water and other things to see if they could put the fire out, but it has escalated to the other rooms in the building.

“I called the fire service men and they said that they have received distress call and were on the way.

“The fire fighting men arrived 30 minutes later, but before then the fire had taken over the entire building. They helped a lot in putting out the fire, but no valuable property was saved at all.

“We have five rooms, two shops and four packing stores. All of them were touched by the fire, but no life was lost. I have shoes and bags from America for sale packed inside my room and N185,000 cash, which I was to pay into the bank.

“The two shops were of supermarket standard and the biggest shops in Odenigbo round about and nothing was picked out of the two shops.

“I can’t say exactly what caused the fire incident. There was electricity power outage and nobody uses gas in the house. All I can say is that the fire emanated from the last room due to the carelessness of the children.

“I have asked one of my tenants’ wife and she is reluctant to own up, but I know one of her children lit a candle, locked the doors of their three rooms apartment and joined her parents and other siblings in the shop.

“The candle burnt, melted into the rug and spread to other rooms of the building and razed everything in the building.”