By Musliudeen Adebayo Close neighbours of the family of three that lost their lives during a fire incident in Ibadan, the Oyo State ...
By Musliudeen Adebayo
Close neighbours of the family of three that lost their
lives during a fire incident in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have recounted
how the incident occurred.
DAILY POST recalls that a family of three consisting of a
man, his wife and their grandchild lost their lives in a fire incident that
occurred on Friday at Omotara compound in Ori Eru, Idikan in Ibadan North West
Local Government Area.
A 60-year-old man, known as ‘Baba Yunus’, his wife and their
eight-year-old grandson, Samuel, were burnt to death during the incident.
The General Manager of Oyo State Fire Service, Mr. Yemi
Akinyinka confirmed the incident
Akinyinka in a statement made available to DAILY POST added
that five people were rescued.
“We evacuated three bodies. But, you know that only the
doctors can confirm anyone dead.
“The unfortunate incident was reported to our agency at
exactly 03:46hrs on Friday, 20th December, 2024.
“Immediately the address was taken, the men and officers of
the agency led by ACFS Oyedeji were promptly deployed to the scene of the
incident.
“On arrival, we met an upper floor of a storey-residential
building of six rooms well alight, we swiftly swung into action and the fire
was completely extinguished.
“Three (3) bodies: husband and wife and their grandson,
while five persons were rescued alive from the building. The ground floor of
the building was protected and other nearby properties,” he said.
Close neighbours to the victims have now described the
incident as unfortunate and shocking.
The residents said that the deceased cried till death.
A neighbour, who identified herself as Bose Ayinde, said
that the fire incident started in the early hours of Friday.
“The fire started at midnight when we had all slept off; we
suddenly heard a loud voice.
“We even thought it was thieves that came to our house.
“When we rushed out, we realised it was fire, we could not
help the victims because the fire was so heavy to the extent that no one can
even move close to it, we are very sad because both husband, wife and their
grandson got burnt to death,” she disclosed.
Another resident, Mr. Aliu Omotara, described the incident
as unfortunate.
“We suddenly heard the victims shouting fire, fire around 3
am; the fire started from their parlor, all our efforts to rescue them proved
abortive.
“NEPA (sic) used to give us light between 12:30am to 6:30 in
the morning.
“When the fire started, the victims started shouting for
rescue, the couples slept inside the room but the fire started from their
parlour, so, there was no other exit for them except through the parlour.
“Their efforts to escape through the window proved abortive
because of the burglary in the window.
“The wife died first; he husband and son came to the window
shouting for help, we were downstairs looking at them upstairs, but we couldn’t
help them because the fire was so heavy that no one can even move close to it.”
Another neighbour, who identified herself as Mrs Dupe
Ajibade, said that the the house was already being razed before the arrival of
the state fire service.
She said, “If not for people in the area that tried their
best to curtail the fire, all houses close to the area would have got burnt.
“The house has already being razed before the arrival of the
fire fighters.
“We could not control tears when the bodies of the victims
were brought out.
“We heard they were cooking with hot plate, but slept off in
the process.”
No comments