Midnight fire gut shops in Oyo market

A devastating fire outbreak engulfed at least 12 shops on Thursday night at the Mayegun Cement Store Market, located in the Araromi area of Agodi-Gate, Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to eyewitness accounts gathered on Friday, the fire started at approximately 10:55 p.m. at Block A, No. 64 of the market and continued to burn intensely for over three hours before it was eventually brought under control.

The inferno reportedly caused extensive damage, with properties worth millions of naira lost to the flames.

Preliminary findings indicate that the blaze was triggered by an electrical surge near flammable materials, which quickly escalated into a full-blown fire.

Confirming the incident to our correspondent in Ibadan, the state capital, on Friday, the General Manager of the state fire service, Yemi Akinyinka, said the agency received the distressed call at exactly 11:02 pm.

He said, “The agency’s control room received the distressed call at exactly 23:02 hrs on Thursday, April 10, 2025, through telephoning and Mr Young to report a shop fire at the above address.

“The fire personnel, led by Cfs Jimoh, promptly deployed to the scene of the fire incident. On arrival, we met some lockup shops well alight, and we swiftly swung into action and restricted the fire from spreading to other nearby shops.

“The fire affected 12 out of multiple numbers of shops and we were able to save property worth billions of naira in the market. The appliance returned to the station by 03:18hrs and on standby.”