Eyewitnesses said neighbours were alerted to the incident by the shout of ‘fire’ by one of the victims identified simply as Aunty Philo, but before they could rush to the flat, the fire had reportedly spread to the entire building, in the process of which the roof fell on Philo, burning her beyond recognition.
Efforts by youths in the area to safe the situation reportedly failed . An eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “We saw aunty Philo trying to force the burglary open but she could not. At that time, we tried to break the wall to rescue her when all of a sudden the roof fell on her.
“ When we eventually succeeded in pulling down the burglary, we saw roasted members of the family on the ground. We could not do any thing again but had to leave because of thick smoke”.
Identities of the victims were given as Mrs Anwuzia, said to be in her fifties, Ekene (16), Emeka (7) and Nwike (30). The mother of three whose husband was said to be away, reportedly returned from a church programme in Ghana the previous day . Her husband, a Pastor, was said to have traveled to Aba,Imo state for an undisclosed assignment .
Fire Service men were said to have arrived the scene later and succeeded in putting out the fire. But by then, the harm had been done. When contacted, the Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr Rasaq Fadipe confirmed the death of five persons. He explained that news of the incident was received at about 1.39am
“ We had to mobilise a truck of 10,000 water capacity from Ikotun to the scene. On reaching there the fire was still on. Because of the magnitude, we had to mobilise another truck from Agege with another 10,000 litres to compliment the first one, before the fire was contained.
Unfortunately, we saw the charred remains of the victims."
Culled from The Sun
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