Idumota, Lagos is one of the biggest markets in Lagos, Nigeria, you can literally buy almost anything you desire in this market, for me, it is my go-to market for quality fabrics and sewing material, those are the basic things that often take me to Idumota market since I resell these fabrics it is important I source them at a cheaper rate so I can sell them to my the best price to my customers, the market is so big that I have not been able to tour half of the market yet no matter the number of times I've visited.
The reason why goods are sold at a cheaper rate, especially the fabrics I buy and resell and sometimes shoes for myself and my children is that most of the sellers in this market directly import their goods themselves, so they often sell them in bulk at discounted prices to wholesalers or individuals. There is never a dull moment In this market because you will always find something that piques your interest, it's difficult to keep to your budget when in this market as you might often end up adding unplanned items to your buy just because you feel it's an opportunity to buy something cheaper that you might probably need later.
Late last two months, around the 20th of March, there was a shocking news that fire had razed some parts of the market due to an explosion from a generator set, it was heartbreaking to see people's life's worth in millions burned to the ground due to the carelessness of one person, if you look closely at some of the images I took of the market, you would see how the stores are closely packed together side by sides with different buildings, that is how fast the fire spread out from store to store, destroying goods worth millions,
one of my customers whom I regularly patronized who sells appliques explained how he wrapped himself with lots of paper tape to at least rescue his money in his safe right inside his store from burning to ashes, but it was too late as the fire was too fierce to be controlled, and the firemen were not yet on ground. This same tragedy befell many other already established businessmen and women, the worst part is that some of these stores aren't even insured. I hope the government assists them in some ways as depression will set in if no help comes to them.
Though the Fire service men were called but before they could arrive at the scene and contain the fire, properties were already destroyed beyond recovery, thankfully, no life was lost, though there have been improvements in my country's fire service sector in terms of the government providing them with more equipments, from the videos I watched of them trying to stop the fire, but I think the citizens need to be properly orientated about emergency numbers to call in case of a fire outbreak, I believe if they had been notified much earlier, the effect from the fire outbreak wouldn't be as severe as this with all those properties/ businesses lost.
Also from the video below, you would see how congested the road was when there was an emergency fire outbreak and the fire truck was trying hard to get to the location, drivers should learn to create a free passage for fire trucks whether there Is an emergency or not. Or better still, the government should construct special lanes for emergency vehicles so they can beat traffic whenever there is an emergency.
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Image 1 is created using Bing Image Creator
Images 2 and 3 are mine