Royal fathers from Uturu community in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State, HRH Eze Ogbonnaya Uwadiegwu of Umuanya and His imperial majesty, Eze Justice C. Nwosu, have appealed to the Abia State government to as a matter of urgency, establish a fire station and Abia State Environmental Sanitation Authority (ASEPA) in Uturu.
The Royal fathers who spoke on the heels of the massive fire outbreak which destroyed over 60 shops at the Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu up gate, said the state government should respond rapidly by setting a fire station around the school area, so as to curtail the incessant fire outbreaks in the school environment.
Eze Ogbonnaya, who is also a Mass Communication lecturer at the University, noted that such fire incident was not the first time, disclosing that it also happened in 2002.
He disclosed that on that fateful day, efforts to contact nearby Imo State Fire Service at Okigwe was proved abortive, which escalated the fire, stating that there is need to establish Abia Fire Service and ASEPA in Uturu.
The traditional ruler further informed that the Uturu community has two universities, the Gregory University and ABSU, while the area is now turning from rural community to urban.
He pointed that “the other day, a building in Gregory University caught fire, because of the intensity of the fire, the university fire service got overwhelmed and the whole building got burnt completely”.
Also speaking, His imperial majesty, Eze Justice C. Nwosu, stated that the fire from an unknown source, razed down over sixty six shops at the popular ABSU Up gate, opposite the state university, at the wee hours of Tuesday, 4th of January 2022.
Eze Nwosu who is resident where the fire incident took place, disclosed that a hostel beside the food stuff market, “Royal Revival Hostel” was also partially burnt, while another building got burnt completely, as well as the shop of a widow who has three of her children studying in the university.
According to him, the fire started few minutes after some group of people passed, but did not suspect them as the cause of the fire.
He explained that the fire started around ten minutes past 1am on Tuesday morning, adding that it was through community efforts and help from their town crier that assisted to stop the fire around 5am.
Eze Nwosu, however, called on the state government ably led by Okezie Ikpeazu, to expedite actions to set up at various levels, rural divisions of fire service and lamented that the Okigwe fire service when contacted said their only driver who will drive their truck travelled to see his sick wife in the village, while Umuahia fire service was unable to come.
He emphasized that fire service sub stations at strategic locations would assist save situations during such emergencies, adding that “no life was lost but a lot of properties worth millions of naira were destroyed”.
