Those who died in the fire were: Kelechi Onoja, 28, his wife, Nkiru, 18, two children Favour, 2 and her three-week-old brother. Others are the late Onoja’s mother-in-law Mrs Okezie and two relatives who were visiting the family.
A neighbour, Uzor Alajemba, said he heard shouts cries for help from the apartment. He however said when he came out smoke had filled the apartment.
“I brought my family out of the house and called neighbours who alerted the firefighters. I don’t how it happened. I just rescued my family,” he said.
Another resident, Tony Anslem alleged that other tenants didn’t raise alarm on time, noting that by the time firefighters got to the house, it was too late to rescue them.
“We heard noise but we couldn’t rescue them because there was a burglar-proof at the entrance of the house. Nkiru’s mother was found burnt at the entrance of the door while trying to escape and the others were found on a mattress inside the room,” he said.
The late Onoja’s sister, Obioma, who was crying uncontrollably said: “I live in Onipanu and I got the information this morning (yesterday), I was still happy that the house was burnt and not that they died until I got here. I don’t know what to do ooo! I am in shock. He is my younger brother. See the way my brother died.”
Christiana Faleti, a resident, who took Chidinma to the hospital said: “Even before I came out, neighbours were busy pouring water from the ceiling because no one could access the entrance because of the burglar-proof. We rescued the girl from the toilet after the fire was put out; a fire service official heard someone cough and sadly we saw a burnt little girl almost lifeless. The Lagos State Ambulance came to carry her and we took her to Gbagada General Hospital, around 3am, but on getting there, she wasn’t admitted because we had no money. So we came back home and neighbours gathered almost N50, 000 for her. I was scared. Her face has roasted. As a mother, I feel her pains.”
The late Mrs Onoja’s brother, Michael Okezie, said their mother planned to return to the village Wednesday after babysitting her grandchild for a month.
“Kelechi is my sister’s husband and we hail from Enugu State. He sells curtain materials on Lagos Island. I am sad. Why is it only their building that burnt? Why did the neighbours run away? These are questions I haven’t found answers to. Our mother went to the market on Tuesday to buy things for yesterday’s journey. We planned to see the baby this Sunday. There is more to this. Why didn’t they rescue them? Why?” he wondered in tears.
Baale of Surulere, Kareem Awoyemi, said he learnt the tenants were not in good terms with the Onojas even before the incident.
“They were not in talking terms with their neighbours; does that mean they shouldn’t rescue them. None of them came out. All of them ran away. I was informed around 3am that they needed money to treat the survivor, which I contributed. The building is over 23 years and we have never had such incident before. It is painful,” Awoyemi said.
Another resident Ejike Eke-Opara said: “The fire was caused by candlelight because their light was disconnected few days ago because they couldn’t afford the prepaid metre. They were the only ones without light and they have been using candle. The occupants of this compound are terrible. Is it because they weren’t in good terms with them that they couldn’t try their best to save them? It didn’t affect the two buildings beside them. This is very strange.”
A security guard, Desmond Mazeli, pleaded with government to take over the building because it was marked two months ago by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). He said since the landlord’s death, the building has been used for all sort of things, including drug trafficking.
The bodies have been deposited in a morgue.
Source: The Nation
1 comment:
Its still strange to me how this happen to just one room n nobody was able to do anything in the compound to save them....its really painful
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