No fewer than 25 shops were gutted by fire at Araromi Spare parts market, Agodi Gate, Ibadan in the early hours of Saturday.

The General Manager Oyo State Fire Service, Rev. Canon Yemi Akinyinka confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Ibadan.

Akinyinka said the service got a call about the incident around 2.30 a.m. through one Mr Soliu and immediately deployed personnel to the place to quench the fire.

“The incident was caused by a careless burning of refuse, they refuse to put off the burning refuse before leaving the shop and it escalated.

“The impression they gave us initially was that around 45 shops were affected but when we got there we discovered that 25 shops were affected by the fire incident,” Akinyinka said.

He further said that his men were able to extinguish the fire around 5.00 a.m. on Saturday and no life was lost in the incident.(NAN)