Disaster struck Thursday night as five children of the same parents
were roasted by fire at No. 29 Comfort Oboh Street, Kirikiri Town in
Lagos. The father of the kids is popularly known as Osuofia. The entire
compound, which housed about 36 tenants, was razed to the ground.
People said occupants battled during the incident to save their own
from the inferno. At dawn, sympathisers besieged the premises wailing.
The ruins were wrenching with charred bodies of the dead at the spot
where the fire started. Saturday Sun gathered that the fire started at
11.30 pm in the room where the five children were sleeping and spread to
other rooms.
The house was made of wood. People said that parents of the deceased
locked the children in the room with a candle light and went back to
their shop across the street. However, while the kids were asleep, the
candlelight got out of control and started spreading. While the fire
raged, the kids were woken by the heat and smoke.
They shouted for help. Neighbours who spoke with Saturday Sun said
that they heard the shouts of the children when the fire was raging, but
they could not break through the hard burglary proof at the entrance of
the room to rescue them. According to residents who witnessed the
incident, men of the Fire Service were informed earlier, but they could
not get to the scene on time because of the bad nature of roads in
Kirirkiri, especially Dillion Street.
“The road is bad and there is always traffic in that area. But Naval
Fire Service vehicle got there earlier but could not help the situation
because the damages by the fire had already been much,” a resident of
the area said. One of the tenants, Mr. Udoh Bassey, whose room stands
partially burnt, told Saturday Sun that no one could say exactly what
caused the fire.
“It started at 11.30 pm when some of us were still awake. It was the
cry from that room that attracted my attention. The entire compound was
razed before help could come our way. I was able to save few of my
properties because my room is located far away from the source of fire.
The children died because their parents locked them inside the house and
went back to their shops close by. We tried, but before we could reach
them, there were explosions from one room to another as all the other
rooms were engulfed by the fire.”
Bassey said it took the intervention of some neighbours to save the
fire from extending to a nearby house, otherwise it would have been more
disastrous. Another neighbour, identified as Mama Chidi, lamented that
the family had concluded plans to travel home for Christmas before the
tragedy struck. “Only God knows why He allowed this to happen.
I can vividly remember when Mama Emeka (mother of the dead children)
ordered her children to go and sleep as she needed to go back to attend
to customers who were waiting for her. Emeka, the oldest pleaded that
they should be allowed to stay outside for a while. She insisted that
they should go to bed since they were to travel the next day.
I believe that it was in a bid to prevent them from running out of
the house that prompted her to lock them inside and went away with the
key.” Another tenant, an Hausa woman who was visibly shaken thanked God
for saving her life and that of her children as they were fast asleep
when the fire started. She said she was in the bathroom when the fire
started and before she could rush out, it had already covered the entire
compound.
“In fact, I do not know how to explain the whole situation. I was
lucky that my sister noticed the fire on time and dragged my children
before our room was razed. I cannot imagine how five children from the
same parents should just die like that. Though they are not my children,
I know what it means for a woman like me to lose her five children.
The kids are three boys and two girls. What pains me most is that
some of them use to welcome me each time I returned to the house from my
outing; some time, they collect my luggage and sent it inside my room,”
she sobbed. When Saturday Sun visited, the parents were said to have
been moved to an undisclosed location. According to a man who said he
was a neighbour, they were taken away “for obvious reasons.” However,
the paper learnt that they were quite devastated. One said they had lost
their minds.
A female tenant, who pleaded anonymity, stated that several things
had been happening around the area in the recent time and therefore
called for God to intervene. “I wonder how the mother of the children
would feel, losing them this time around”. I will say that this incident
is satanic. People are blaming the parents for leaving their children
inside the room. But they will not understand what was behind the whole
thing.
In fact, so many terrible things are happening in this Comfort Oboh,
Street. Last time, a child fell from the staircase and died. So, we are
living by the grace of God.” Meanwhile, Lagos State Police command’s
spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, confirmed the incident.
She said the children were Emeka, 12; Ifeanyi, 10; Chinasa, 8; Joy, 6
and bright, 4. The charred bodies of the children have been released to
the family, according to the police spokesperson.
Culled From: The Sun
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