It was gathered that an inferno occured at Onitsha Chemical Market, Anambra killing about four people while 12 sustained degrees of injury.The explosion also ensued stampede at the market.
The inferno equally destroyed goods and properties worth millions of naira.The news however got to the Chairman of Onitsha South local government area, Mr Emeka Orji who stormed the area with members of his staff and contacted the Anambra State Fire Service led by Martin Agbili who deplored officers and men of the department from Okpoko in Ogbaru local government area and that of Asaba in Delta State who took control over the market.
“The number of deaths could not be ascertained as well as the number of those injured but those injured have been rushed to the medical facilities around the area and we are happy that most of them are responding to treatment.”Mr Orji said 
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Fegge Rabiu Garuba,was also contacted whilst he deployed officers and men to the market to guarantee the security of goods and other properties belonging to the traders.“Our proactive measures about fire outbreak also paid off because we had put in place fire fighting gadgets in some lines and that was what the traders and market task force team were using to fight the fire before the Anambra State Fire Service came in,” he said.
“We were at our shops as usual when we heard a loud noise like a bomb blast and we saw thick smoke from some shops upstairs and everyone started running for safety.“Then people started shouting for help and we saw people carrying bodies of people from those shops that were on fire and some were burnt pretty badly while some seem to have been suffocated by the smoke and the stampede.“We don’t know how much has been lost to the fire but it can be estimated at N850 million to about N1 billion because the goods are strong chemical products that are highly inflatable.We are happy that the Anambra State Fire Service came on time to prevent the inferno from going deep into the market”Mr Nweke Uchenna, one of the traders said.
