It has been reported that an explosion occured at Rivers which destroyed goods and property worth millions of naira were destroyed . The incident started in a set of apartments at Awkwuzu Street in the Diobu area of Mile One in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
Following the intensity of the explosion, over 20 affected occupants of the building precisely on No. 9 Awkwuzu Street were displaced. According to eyewitnesses , the fire started at about 8am when a faulty gas from one of the rooms exploded and spread to the other apartments.
Many of the affected residents watched the raging fire helplessly consuming their property, amidst wailing, a thick black smoke billowed into the atmosphere.One of the affected occupants who gave her name as Esther stated that the fire started from the roof of a woman who left her cooking gas on and went to the hospital. 
While noting that the camp gas was faulty, she said the woman didn’t know she hadn’t properly turned the gas off before leaving home.The lady while narrating the incident in an emotionally laden voice said none of the occupants was able to salvage any property from the building due to the speed of the inferno.She stated, “Somebody, a woman, unknowingly left her gas on. You know how this camp gas behave when the regulator is bad.“Probably, she turned it off thinking it was off but I think she didn’t observe it well. So she took it inside her apartment, locked the door and left for the clinic.”
“Before people could realise, it had burnt and exploded. That was the cause of the fire. Unfortunately nobody was able to pick anything out of the place. The place was completely razed.”Another resident said it was unfortunate that for nearly two hours that the fire was on, firefighters did not show up to try to put it out.“No fire service came, either from the state or federal. If they came at least some people would have rescued some valuables of other property,” he lamented.
Aside personal property and buildings lost to the fire, about five shops belonging to traders in front of the building were also consumed in the inferno.
On the Commander, Federal Fire Service in Rivers State, Abdul Alfa’s part he said he was aware of the incident, but expressed regrets that its men were not able to get to the scene because their operational vehicles were under maintenance.While sympathizing with the affected residents, he said the federal fire service under his watch responds to every distress call on that nature but that it was handicapped due to the situation of its vehicles.Alfa stated, “Not that we didn’t turn up. The problem is that our vehicles are of the road. They are under maintenance.“But I tried to call the fire department from some of the companies here in Port Harcourt to see how they can assist. If our vehicles are in order what are waiting for? It is our job and we don’t waste time in responding to such distress calls because we know it is an emergency situation.”
