Property worth millions of Naira were yesterday razed at Ayedun quarters in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
No life was lost but many shops stocked with foodstuffs and other valuables were destroyed.
Eyewitnesses said the cause of the inferno could not be ascertained.
Items destroyed include bags of rice and beans, tubers of yams, kegs of palm oil and vegetable oil, cooking utensils, assorted clothes, expensive jewellery, fans, television sets, power stabilisers and generating sets.
A victim, Mrs. Bola Makinde, said she received a phone call about 1am that her shop was gutted by fire.
She said she rushed down and met her goods consumed by fire.
Tearful victims and sympathisers were packing the wreckage. Some residential buildings near the complex were also affected.
A motorcycle repairer lamented that his equipment were destroyed with his customers’ three motorcycles.
A source linked the incident to power surge, although it was gathered there was no light in the area when the fire started.
A landlady, Mrs. Mary Dada, said: “The cause of the fire is not clear to me. Everyone had gone to sleep and all the traders around had gone home.
“One of my tenants went out in the midnight to ease himself and he was the one who raised the alarm before everybody rushed out.”
The traders urged the government to come to their aid.