A sad incident has been reported in Niger State where a fire outbreak had caught up with a two-bedroom flat house on Wednesday, June 10, burning to death a mother and her three kids including a month old baby, Naija News reports.
It was reported that the incident happened at Nkangbe, a community at the outskirts of Minna, at about 11.30 pm on Wednesday while the residents were resting on their bed.
All efforts made to put off the inferno which reportedly lasted for about three hours proved abortive.
Further reports revealed that the second wife whose name is given as Fati and her two kids were not affected by the fire as their apartment was at the rear, they survived with severe burns from the raging fire.
Meanwhile, their husband, Baba Abba, reportedly residing in Abuja was away when the horrible incident happened and claimed his other wife and her children.
A local source revealed that men of the state fire service were reached when the fire broke out but could not rescue anyone in the building, neither were they able to save a needle due to the jammed doors and window burglaries.
Regarding the cause of the fire, residents revealed that it couldn’t be an electric surge as the community had no electricity for over two months after their transformer was affected.
Speaking on the rescue mission, a neighbour identified as Musa Ibrahim told newsmen that the fire service responded to calls immediately, but could not help due to the difficulty in accessing the entrance of the building.
He said, “We tried as much as we could but we couldn’t get inside. With the help of the fire service, we rescued the second wife through the window and she was wounded and had some burns.”
“When we were able to get inside as men of the fire service tried their best to rescue the second wife and her children but before we could get inside, they were already burnt.”
Reacting to the incident, one of the men of the fire service said, “we received stress call from those in the area and the fire service came. We tried to help fight the fire. We met people trapped inside the house but was able to rescue only three people.”
“There were four casualties and the cause of the fire is not known. The people here say their transformer has been spoilt and they said the people in the house did not put on the generator that night,” Musa revealed.
He added, “Everything in the house was burnt down, nothing could be savage. It is very unfortunate. We are awaiting the arrival of our Controller to come and access the house.“
Meanwhile, the Niger State Command of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has announced the arrest of two men with possession of thirty-six automated teller machines.
