“What we don't understand, we can make it to mean anything of it” is a famous quote by a popular writer, Chuck Palahniuk, and this is what is perhaps lending credence to the following assumption that followed last Tuesday’s early morning fire that gutted Brasas Fabrics building, a six storey building located on Martins Street, Lagos, and owned by a Lagos socialite and business woman, Alhaja Fausat Fusigboye.
Nigerians are superstitious people no doubt, and they will always adduce to the metaphysical or superstitious, whatever that happens repeatedly and are not able to find ready explanations to the oft occurrences. As traders, whose goods were destroyed in continue to count their losses, a revelation has emerged that the inferno has a mystical undertone. According to Crimeworld’s sources, some of those who chose to speak on condition of anonymity, described the fire as a “yearly” ritual; “It’s not only last year that this building didn’t burn, but even at that, there was a robbery incident, during which expensive fabrics, both belonging to the owner of the building and shop owners, were carted away. What is usually the aftermath of either robbery or natural disaster on the building is that a life must be lost, and goods either carted away or destroyed by fire and this normally takes place at the end of every year. Madam would come out two days after to give away what was left in her shops to unsuspecting people and leave, disclosed another source. Just as it happened this time again, she came out in a jubilating manner that was even aired on Channels TV, which almost generated into fracas by the grieving traders. Within days, the building would come up more beautiful than what it was before, and all the destroyed and re-built shops would be fully-loaded with new goods again. Another source, who simply identified himself as Alhaji Bashiru, “Alhaja Fausat, because I still call her so even though she has converted, was a Muslim. I personally am not happy that close to every year this building will either go up in flames destroying properties and sending panic to adjoining buildings or the shops will be burgled by robbers. I think there is more to this because we have several other tribes doing business here in Balogun; they will begin to look at us Yoruba as fetish and wicked. Why should this be happening every year without people raising alarm? The entire ground floor has been converted into a church where people worship God and I know whether as a Muslim or Christian, God is not a God of confusion. As a human being, when one loses goods of such magnitude to fire or any other natural disaster, one is bound to be sober and retrospective of the loss but that is not Fausat’s character. She would just come and dash out the remains of the fabrics and simply say God knows best. And before you know it, the building would be renovated and the shops fully loaded. This is why we want Government to investigate this and put an end to the recurring fire in the heart of the state, because sometimes somehow, it might spread to other buildings and cause more havoc. Although,it is yet to be ascertained, if really anyone died the following morning, as part of the building was engulfed,collapsed on them. Several persons were also said to have sustained varying degrees of injuries in the stampede that ensued at the scene of the fire, in frantic efforts to salvage some of the goods that were mainly clothing and foot wears, which were trapped on the floors of the affected building. The monetary value of the wares destroyed by the fire could not be immediately ascertained as of the time of this report, but sources close to the owners put it at hundreds of millions of naira. It was gathered that the fire started when a tiny smoke was first noticed at about 8.00am, when traders were opening their shops for the day’s business, at the fourth floor of the building and was mistaken for a generator fume; adding that it later degenerated into a thick smoke and then, full scale inferno. It was gathered that while shop owners scampered to salvage some of their goods, the fire soon entered the fifth floor and became much more raging. Curiously, before alerted fire fighters could arrive the scene, it had razed a substantial part of the now visibly decrepit building, and all the wares stored in some of the shops that were under lock and key as of the time of the inferno. Additional information from www.crimeworld.com.ng
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