By William Madouk Garang
The mayor of Pibor town said Monday midnight fire engulfed Pibor market and razed down 36 makeshift shops destroying properties worth millions of South Sudanese pounds, but no injuries were recorded.
Pibor town mayor, John Gain said the incident occurred on Monday at around 2 PM and according to the initial findings the fire outbreak was caused by solar power blast in one of shops.
“We don’t have full information but preliminary finding suggested that there is a shop of one trader called Wad-Al-Sheik who has the solar power and that solar blasted,” Mayor Gain told No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper via phone call from Pibor.
“After solar power blasted in one of the shops, fire immediately caught curtains and then it spread to other shops, you know shops in Pibor are still makeshift. That is what ignited the fire according to data we gathered,” he added.
Mayor Gain said 36 lock-up shops were destroyed to ashes in the inferno that broke out late last night without injuries recorded but lost valued assets.
“36 shops were completely damaged; the shops are full of consumable goods, clothes and pharmacies” said Gain.
“There was no loss of life and nobody was injured in the incident. Only several shops and valuable properties were destroyed,” the town mayor stated.
He noted that the chief administrator of Pibor administrative area inspected the market and he directed traders to come up with a list of traders whose shops were destroyed in the fire and assets burnt to help in evaluation of losses.
“We still don’t know the estimation of losses yet, I think there are also some shops were cash were burned inside because here we still don’t have banks – if you have something you keep with those traders,” he underlined.
Mayor said according to the chief administrator who visited the market, the traders who were affected by the fire outbreak will not be compensated but maybe they will be exempted from paying tax for specific period of time.
“The chief administrator has asked for the list of traders who were affected and if road opens – he will give specific time for traders who were affected not to pay taxes,” Mayor Gain added.