Men of the Enugu State Fire Service escaped mob attack by the whiskers on Wednesday following their late arrival to a scene of fire disaster at Uwani, in Enugu metropolis.
It was learnt that although the office was contacted as soon as the fire started, the officials got to the scene with one vehicle about 1 hour 30 minutes later.
Before their arrival, the fire had already turned one bungalow to ashes.
The building housed residential houses, a buotique and a furniture showroom.
Upon sighting the Fire Service vehicle, angry residents numbering over 500 started pelting stones on the officials as well as on the windscreen, a situation that made the driver to zoom off from the place.
When our correspondent arrived the scene, some gallant youths were making frantic efforts to quell the fire. Although they could not save the building, they prevented the fire from spreading to other houses.
One of the victims Mrs Grace Okonkwo lamented saying
“I just left to get my kid from school but on coming back here, I can’t find our showroom again.
“All we have in this life is gone; people have already paid for most of the furniture there; where do we go from here?”
An angry resident spoke further saying ,
“What the youths did to them is right because they are not doing anything in Enugu State. They have never quenched any fire in this state.
“When I traveled to Ghana, fire broke out somewhere and before the Fire service men came, they were already using helicopter to extinguish the fire.
“In this case, they were called as soon as this fire started but they got here almost two hours later; that’s not how to attend to emergency”, he stated.
He pleaded with the government and other relevant agencies to assist the victims of the disaster.
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