Fire Guts Wooden Boat At Bayelsa Jetty

Millions of naira were lost on Thursday after a wooden transport boat, MV King George, was gutted by fire and burned down to the waterline at the jetty of the Swali Ultra-Modern Market in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The boat was loaded with foodstuffs and other goods as it was preparing to depart for Akassa in the Brass Local Government Area when the fire occurred.

No lives were lost in the fire which broke out while the boat was still at the jetty.

The deckhands and passengers on board quickly jumped out due to the intensity of the flames.

A trader said a cigarette caused the fire, but the state chairman of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, Ipigansi Ogoniba, said it was the water pump that caught fire, and it quickly spread to the rear where the main boat engine was located.

Items including bags of garri, rice, beans and other foodstuffs were lost in the process.

When PUNCH Metro got to the scene, fire was still burning on the water surface while people numbering about 20 were in the water searching for items that were not burnt.

Two youths recovered a bag of garri that was torn at one edge and soaked with water, hoping to remove the bad area in order to salvage something.

A crowd stood watching as a hand-pulled boat that got close to the fire still burning on the water’s surface also caught fire, but it was quickly put out using water from the river.

According to Ogoniba, the firefighters from the state fire service could not put out the fire as they arrived about an hour after.

“You know the fire service, they came an hour late,” he told PUNCH Metro on Thursday.

Ogoniba added, “The fire started from the water pump, which caught fire. The name of the boat is King George. It was owned by King George from Akassa.

“King George has two boats. He uses the bigger one and rents the smaller one to Emmanuel. It was the smaller one that got burnt.”