Tragedy struck in the Jakande Estate,
Mile 2 area of Lagos State on Tuesday night after a family lost all
three children to an inferno which broke out in their apartment.
The victims were identified as Darasimi Ilori (eight months old), Temiloluwa (7), and Daniel (10).
It
was learnt that Temilololuwa and Daniel were pupils of Sabis Nursery
and Primary School and were in primary three and five respectively.
PUNCH Metro
gathered from residents that the fire started after the mother of the
children lit a candle, shortly after returning from a church service.
She
was said to have locked the children in the room and then went out to
pick clothes she had washed and spread out to dry earlier in the day.
Few
minutes later, while the kids were asleep, the room was said to have
been engulfed in smoke, before fire gutted the flat and burnt the
children to death.
Our correspondent visited the area on Wednesday morning and observed that only the top floor of the six-flat building was burnt.
A resident, Ejiro Omamogho, told our correspondent the fire started at 10pm.
She
said, “When I was locking up my shop around 10pm, I saw their mother
coming back from church. The children were feeling sleepy, so she went
upstairs to drop them and shut the room. She lit a candle to illuminate
the house before coming downstairs to pack their clothes she spread on
the line.
“Within a few minutes, I
heard a neighbour shouting, ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ There was pandemonium
everywhere. By the time we came out, I asked Iya Daniel (Daniel’s
mother) where her children were, and she told me they were inside the
house.”
Another resident, Esther Esiorho, told PUNCH Metro
that the victim’s father, who had just returned from Victoria Island
where he worked as a chef in an eatery, began to make rescue efforts.
Esiorho said she also joined in the rescue mission.
She said, “Their father ran back because the fire was too intense.
“What
I, however, saw was that the seven-year-old girl, Temiloluwa, had woken
up and carried her eight-month-old sister, wanting to run out with her.
“But
as she got into the parlour, the ceiling collapsed on them and they
fell. Both of them were burnt to death. When we were removing their
bodies, we saw the skeleton of Temiloluwa and the baby, clutching to
each other.”
Our correspondent learnt
that immediately the incident happened, the victims’ parents were
overcome by grief. While Mrs. Ilori reportedly began speaking
incoherently, her husband passed out.
Residents said the couple was admitted at the Amuwo Medical Centre and their conditions were critical.
When PUNCH Metro visited
the clinic, a nurse said a church bus had been in the clinic earlier to
convey them to the Celestial Church of Christ, Covenant Cathedral in
the Amuwo Odofin area.
Upon getting to
the church, our correspondent met a committee of church elders, who
said the couple had been moved to an unknown family house in Ogun State.
A
pastor, who declined to give his name, said, “It is an unfortunate
incident. When the incident happened last night (Tuesday), all we did
was to move the two of them from the estate to the hospital.
“Early
this morning (Wednesday), their relatives came to move them to their
family house. But we have been instructed not to say a word to the
press.”
One of the youths who
spearheaded the rescue operation, Gabriel Omamogho, decried the attitude
of the firefighters, whom he accused of arriving late at the scene and
without the right equipment.
Omamogho,
who said he removed the charred remains of the kids with his hands and
took them to the Yaba mortuary in his car, also accused the community
leaders of being self-centered.
“The
fire service officials came around past 11pm. When they arrived, they
were not with a sledgehammer, ladder or even a fire extinguisher. The
youths in the estate climbed up and drew the hose upstairs. We put out
the fire at 12am and I took the corpse to the mortuary,” he said.
The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, however, said his men did not get the alert on time.
“When
we got there, we met the fire well alight. The Isolo fire truck was the
first to respond with 10,000 litres of water and when I received a
signal that the fire was serious, I had to deploy another fire truck
from the Sari-Iganmu fire station, with additional 10,000 litres of
water.
“However, some of the youths on
ground tried to take over the fire equipment from us and out of
overzealousness, damaged some of them.
“They
delayed in calling us and that was why we were not able to rescue the
children. Two flats of three bedrooms each were destroyed by the fire,
while we prevented the fire from getting to the ground and first
floors.”
The spokesperson for the
National Emergency Management Agency, South West Zone, Ibrahim
Farinloye, advised Lagos residents to be more vigilant with candle
light, and not lock up their children in the room while going out.
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