A gas explosion on Saturday evening burnt down 14 shops and a pharmacy with one person injured.

The incident occurred at about 5:40 pm on Ibrahim Taiwo Road by Abeokuta street in Kaduna.

Residents mobilised to put out the fire before it spread further in the densely populated area.

Also, most of the shops affected by the gas explosion contained kitchen equipment, gas cylinders and refiling facilities.
The residents chased away fire service personnel from the Kaduna State University who arrived over an hour after the fire started.

One of the shop owners, Mr Ifeanyi Eze said the fire started as a result of electrical surge which led to heavy explosion in one of shops selling gas cylinders.

An eye witness, Mr Samuel Emma said immediately after the explosion, fire emerged from the shop, adding that the owner was slightly burnt and was rushed to hospital.

“We don’t know his situation now, but from there, the fire extended to the rest of the shops and only a few items were salvaged.

“We thank God no life was lost. We called the fire service but for close to two hours we didn’t see them until one fire service vehicle from Kaduna State University came and was chased away by angry neighbors,” he said.

A resident, Hamza Ado said: “we called the fire fighters but they didn’t come and when we called again we were told that they had no water in their vehicles.

”It was the youth that fetched water from all available sources to control the blaze.”