KANO, Mar 12 – An overnight fire razed northern Nigeria\’s largest textile market, consuming goods valued at billions of naira and some cash, traders said Friday.
Firefighters were battling Friday to extinguish the inferno which started around 12.30 in the morning at Kantin Kwari textile market in Kano, they said.
"The fire was caused by a spark from a nearby transformer when power was restored after a blackout," Liti Kulkul, a spokesman for the traders told AFP.
"Fire is still raging but firefighters are battling to contain it," he said, adding that the state-run National Emergency Management Agency was trying to use a helicopter to put out the inferno.
He said more than 500 shops and hundreds of stalls owned by Nigerian, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese traders and textile goods and materials valued at billions of naira were destroyed by the fire.
"A particular trader lost 150 million naira (one million dollars / 723 million euros) in cash in his shop. Other traders had to grab him when he attempted to run into the fire," Kulkul added.
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