A trader in Lagos’ Computer Village market says he lost goods worth more than 150 million naira ($100,000) after a fire swept through a commercial building in the early hours of Tuesday.
Ebere Daddymuonso, one of the traders affected, said the blaze gutted the upper floor of a one-storey building on Somoye Osundairo Street in the Computer Village area of Ikeja, a major hub for computer and electronics dealers in Lagos State.
A reporter at the scene said the fire broke out around 2 a.m., hours after traders had closed for the day. Shops on the upper floor, used mainly by laptop dealers, were completely razed, and the roof of the building collapsed due to the intensity of the flames.
Emergency responders forced their way into the locked building through a rear entrance to contain the fire. The cause had not been determined as of Tuesday, though some traders speculated it may have been triggered by an electrical surge following erratic power supply the previous day.
The Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency Olufemi Oke Osanyintolu said goods worth millions of naira were destroyed and that one firefighter sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
“Upon arrival at about 2:15 a.m., responders encountered active flames and dense smoke in a one-storey commercial building housing computer and accessories dealers,” he said, adding that the large quantity of combustible materials fueled the rapid spread of the fire.
A security guard at the market, who gave his name as Ibrahim, said he tried unsuccessfully to reach one of the traders after the fire started.
Daddymuonso said he was alerted to the incident around 1:30 a.m. but arrived hours later to find nothing left to salvage.
“I lost goods worth over 150 million naira, and some people may have lost even more,” he said. “Everything on the upper floor — 13 offices mainly occupied by laptop importers — was completely burnt.”
He appealed to the government and humanitarian organizations for assistance, saying the traders had lost both their goods and shops.
The market’s Iyaloja, Abisola Azeez, praised emergency responders for preventing the fire from spreading to nearby buildings and urged the state government to support affected traders.
“What they have lost runs into billions of naira,” she said. “Without government support, they cannot recover on their own.”
The emergency agency said a structural assessment would be carried out on the damaged building due to the severity of the fire.
