Kelvin Bowoto
An early morning fire broke out at the famed Roky Fella Night Club on Udoji Street in Kpirikpiri, Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State, destroying properties and items worth millions of naira.
Refrigerators, television sets, air conditioners, other technological gadgets, musical instruments, seats, tables, varied drinks, and other shop goods were among those destroyed by the inferno.
The fire, which was claimed to have begun about 5:30 a.m., lasted more than an hour until the Ebonyi State Fire Service came and extinguished it.
Mr. Uche Ogbodo, an eyewitness who spoke with LEADERSHIP, attributed the fire outbreak to a power surge, adding that the club house staff, who were still sleeping inside the building prior to the incident, all escaped unharmed but expressed regret that all of the nightclub’s facilities had been destroyed.
“To the best of my knowledge, the incident could have been caused by a power surge because the club closed early this morning at around 4:30 AM, and the epidemic began around 5:30 AM.
“At around 5:45 a.m., we noticed thick flames and smoke coming from the nightclub and warned other neighbours, who summoned the attention of firefighters, who assisted in keeping the fire from spreading to other areas.
“The incident produced severe concern and tension in the region due to the late arrival of the Fire Service members. Residents attempted self-help by getting water from a nearby borehole and combining it with detergent to extinguish the fire, but it proved uncontrollable.
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“But I must praise the firemen because their arrival, albeit not very early, rescued the situation because many residences in the region would have been impacted. They arrived prepared. They arrived with three tanker loads of water, and there was no reason for a lack of water.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP, Mr. Chidi Chukwuemeka, the manager of the Night Club, stated that the club’s staff called him at 6 a.m. to inform him that a fire had gutted the clubhouse and that he needed to rush to the location, adding that when he arrived, the entire facility had been razed.
The store owner, a cosmetics artist who talked to LEADERSHIP on the condition of anonymity, stated that the commodities, equipment, and properties damaged in her shop were worth more over five million naira, and expressed horror at the incident.
Some of the nightclub’s employees, who were seen weeping excessively, expressed concern that many of them had been fired, saying that with the facility burned down, their source of income had been destroyed by the inferno, and they pleaded with the government to help.
Mr. Raphael Ibiam, Chief Fire Officer of Ebonyi State, revealed that they received a distress call about 6:30 a.m., and when they arrived on the scene, the fire had caused extensive damage.
“We were not called on time, so I immediately mobilized and went to the scene; sadly, the fire had destroyed the entire clubhouse. We did our utmost to keep the fire from spreading to other surrounding homes.
Techrectory with Agency Report.
