A car dealer has broken down in tears after a midnight fire razed his office and destroyed vehicles worth over N700 million, including cars bought and paid for by customers.
Recounting the ordeal in a trending video shared online, the dealer said he closed from work around 10 p.m., only to receive a distress call from his security guard at about 2 a.m.
He said he quickly checked his security cameras and was horrified to see flames engulfing the premises.
According to him, he rushed out and tried to battle the fire with water and more than 10 fire extinguishers on site, but the inferno helped by night breeze kept spreading.
He said he immediately contacted the fire service and other emergency agencies, but it took about three hours before firefighters arrived the scene and brought the blaze under control.
By then, the damage had been done.
“My office, everything is gone. I had cars worth over N500 million in my lot. Customers’ cars worth over N200 million were also destroyed,” he lamented.
The dealer said over 21 customer vehicles were affected, many of which had been fully paid for but not yet collected.
“I spent over N200 million to buy cars for them, and they could not be able to pick their cars again. They spent over N100 million, N80 million, and they won’t be able to pick their cars again,” he said, his voice trembling.
Visibly distraught, the dealer apologized to all affected customers, saying he did not know what caused the fire and that his heart bleeds for their loss.
He prayed for God to comfort them and restore what they had lost in multiple folds.
