Publisher Counts Losses As Fire Guts His Residence In Yenagoa

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of a Bayelsa-based tabloid, “Niger Delta Herald Newspaper”, Dr. Francis Dufugha, has continued to relive moments fire gutted his resident in Yenagoa, the State capital on Wednesday.
The Tide gathered that the Publisher of one of Niger Delta’s foremost tabloids lost properties worth millions of naira to a fire outbreak which gutted parts of his residence in the Okaka area of Yenagoa.
An eyewitness, Mr. Nimi Mienye, said the incident occurred at night.
Mieye told The Tide that smoke was first noticed coming from the kitchen area of the apartment and that the smoke emanating from the house prompted neighbours to raise the alarm.
According to him, no casualty was recorded in the incident as no occupant was in the house as at the time of the outbreak.
Dufugha was in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital for an academic assignment when the incident reportedly occured.
“I was contacted and informed of the sad incident by my neighbours. My neighbours called to inform me of the sad news.
“They said on seeing the heavy smoke coming out from my apartment, they forced their way into the house and mobilised to put out the fire before it could spread to other parts of the building and adjoining properties.
“I want to thank God that no life was lost. It’s quite an unfortunate and distressing development”, the Publisher said.
“But for the quick intervention of neighbours, which helped to prevent the spread of the fire, what could have happened would have been more devastating.
“Property can be replaced, but human life cannot. I am deeply saddened by the incident, but I am also grateful to the neighbours who responded quickly and helped to put out the fire”, Dufugha added.
The Publisher said the exact cause of the fire would need to be properly established, noting that the possibility of an electrical fault following the restoration of public power could not be ruled out.
Meanwhile residents of the area bout electrical safety, particularly the need to take precautions whenever public power supply is restored after an outage. and environs have renewed concerns about electrical safety, particularly the need to take precautions whenever public power supply is restored after an outage.
They called on authorities concerned and relevant emergency agencies to unravel the actual cause of the fire incident and assess the extent of damage to the property.

Ariwera Ibibo-Howells,
Yenagoa