No fewer than 86 shops, situated on the premises of the Police Officers Wives Association, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos, were gutted by fire on Sunday.

It was learnt that of the 86 lock-up shops, 48 were completely razed while 38 others were partly affected by the fire, which lasted for hours.

According to emergency officials, it took two trucks of water to put out the flames.

Although, no life was lost, goods worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed in the fire.

The Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Razaq Fadipe, said the fire might have been caused by a generator.

He said, “Around 9.30pm, we received a distress call that there was an outbreak of fire at POWA market; so, we deployed a fire truck from Ikeja Fire Station but the fire was so intense that we had to get another truck from Alausa Fire Station.

“In all, 86 shops were affected but only 48 were completely razed.

“We could not ascertain the actual cause of fire but we were told that somebody was cooking near a generator when the generator caught fire and exploded. The fire then spread. Fortunately, no life was lost and we were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the senior officers’ quarters.”

Fadipe stressed the need for traders to obey the state directive on closing time for markets.

He added that it was important for markets to have firefighting equipment on its premises.

The director of the service said, “All markets are meant to be shut by 6pm but traders continue to flout this directive. Most times, fires in markets start at night and it is more difficult to fight fires at night.