Although the cause of the fire is not yet known, a firefighter who spoke to
Daily Trust on Sunday linked it to a generating set. It started around 7am and raged for over 10 hours despite the combined efforts of the federal and state fire service to put it off.
According to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, 60 per cent of the 16,000 shops were razed and an unascertained number of properties were destroyed.
It was learnt that those trading in jewellery, cosmetics, clothing materials, plastic items, secondhand cloths, shoes, agro-allied products, books, bicycles, spare parts and sewing materials were mostly affected.
Alhaji Kasimu Ruche, one of the leading dealers in clothing materials, said he lost everything, including an unspecified amount of money, as all his shops were burnt.