A four-year-old boy, identified as Paul, and his sister,
1 year, have been burnt to death after fire gutted a
bungalow in the Igbo-Efon, Lekki area of Lagos State.
The incident happened around 5am on Saturday.
PUNCH Metro was told that the fire began from a
cooking stove which exploded in the bungalow where
the victims lived with their parents.
The inferno was said to have quickly spread and
torched the room where the children were.
Our correspondent gathered that the mother of the
children fled the area and called for help, but the
children could not be saved.
PUNCH Metro learnt that firefighters and other
officials of the Lagos State Fire Service and National
Emergency Management Agency were on ground during
the incident.
The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak
Fadipe, said the agency was not alerted on time, adding
that when firefighters got to the scene, they only met
the charred remains of the victims.
He said, “The fire started around 5am, and it involved a
bungalow on 11, Fabiyi Street, Igbo Efon. The bungalow
has a two and a three bedroom flats.
“We were alerted to the incident exactly 6.03am and
when we got there, we still met the fire raging. We
deployed our men from the Eti-Osa and Onikan
divisions in the area.
“However, when they got there, they only saw the
corpses of the kids; they had suffered severe burns
injuries.
“Preliminary investigations reveal that the children’s
father was not around, but their mother was. They
were preparing a meal on the stove, when the stove
exploded.
“The children could not escape it and that was how
they were burnt to death.”
Fadipe said an uncle of the victim called the ambulance
service which conveyed them to the mortuary, adding
that the tragedy was avoidable if precaution had been
taken by the children’s parents.
He advised members of the public to avoid storing
kerosene and petrol in the same keg, which he said
might have been responsible for the incident.
“We suspect that the explosion was because
kerosene was mixed up with petrol in the tank of the
stove. This could be because the couple used the same
keg to buy petrol and kerosene.
“It is very important for people to ensure that the keg
they use in buying kerosene is not the same used for
petrol.
“Again, when the fire in a cooking stove is to be put
off, we must ensure the thread is completely out, and
not for us to be using crude method of water or
mouth to blow out the fire, which could cause an
explosion,” Fadipe added.
The spokesperson for NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said
the victims were with a couple in the area because of
the elections, when a gas cooker exploded.
He said, “The children were in the area because of the
election and wanted to seek refuge in the event that
there was violence where they stayed with their
parents. They were cooking when there was an
explosion.
“The kids hid under the bed, but were burnt to death.
Nobody knew they were there until somebody
remembered that they were still in the house, but by
then, it was too late.”
He added that officials of the agency tried to salvage
the situation, but it was too late.

what stops you from doing good when our days are numbered? if a 4 year old can die , what stops you? let's be good my ppl.

Rip to the dead

RIP to the kiddies.







Illiteracy is bad,buying fuel and kerosene in the same keg? Becos they don't have 200naira to buy another keg??





May we not bury our children in Jesus name! Amen

rip