Warri: Fire Razes Two Buildings, As Residents Accuse Fire Service Station Of Inefficiency

By Ambrose Ologide

An early morning fire on Friday, 3rd October, 2025, razed down two buildings along Lower Erejuwa Road by Ope Junction, Warri.

The cause of the inferno which destroyed goods and properties worth several millions of naira belonging to residents and traders was not immediately known.

However, those who spoke to our correspondent attributed the cause to electrical bridge.

One of them, Chief Elder Paul Obire, a land lord in Ope and former football coach of the defunct NNPC Football Club, Warri, said that fire broke out of one of the affected compounds when power was restored by Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) about 1a.m on the fateful day after 3 days of power outage.

Coach Obire stated that the fire fighters whose station is located in the neighborhood, responded almost immediately but only for them to allegedly complain that their fire truck did not have water to pull out the fire and that the fire fighters left and did not come back till the time of the media interaction.

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He recalled that in the past, fire fighters who have such a challenge reached out to other sister fire stations in SPDC, NPA and NNPC, but this he said, the Delta State Government fire fighters did not do.

He opined that fire services are essential and that they should be efficient in order to minimize the effects of such fire disasters.

While sympathizing with victims of the fire disaster, Obire frowned at the activities of some unscrupulous persons involved in looting of goods and properties of victims during and after the fire disaster,” saying this shows the level of hunger and poverty in the country.

However, another resident who simply identified himself as a cleric, was of a different opinion as he observed that the fire fighters had problems with the water pumping mechanism of their truck.

The head of Delta State Fire Station in Warri, the nearby Obahor Street Off Ogboru Road who identified himself as M . k Egbinoba confirmed this, when he told our correspondent that the fighting truck developed equipment failure hence they went back to their station without combating the fire.

He also averred that he had sent for a mechanic to put the said equipment in order and that he had reported the matter to the headquarters of fire service in Asaba.