It was a bad day for the Family of Ignatius and residents of Ogunleye Street, off Adekunle Kuye, Surulere, Lagos yesterday as fire razed down three shops on the street burning a woman and her three children to ashes.
According to sources at the scene, the fire started at about 2.38a.m. from one of the shops and then spread to the shop where a man, identified as Ignatius and his family use as their home.
The exact cause of the inferno could not be ascertained as at Press time but information from sources disclosed that Ignatius had to break down the door of the shop, which he also used for laundry services and ran out in flame alongside his wife Hope, who was also on fire while Neighbors help put out the fire on them.
It was gathered that , Hope, who was in pains rushed back into the raging fire when she heard her children crying for help but she was burnt to death with her three children— Chukwuka, Nonso, and Ugochukwu, ages 9, 7 and 6respectively.
Ignatius was said to have died shortly after been rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
A private guard in the area, Salisu identify as Ibrahim said “I was in my cubicle when I saw smoke. I rushed out, only to discover that it was from the shops on B23. I alerted my colleagues and by the time we got there, we saw the dry cleaner screaming and rolling on the floor to put out the fire on him. “Immediately his wife came out, she asked ‘where are my children?’ Before we knew it, she ran back inside. Nobody could do anything because the fire was much.”
The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, said: “The Agency’s Emergency Response Team, ERT, received a distress call via our emergency number, concerning a fire outbreak yesterday at about 2:38a.m. “This prompted the immediate activation of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Agency’s ERT to the scene of the incident, which prevented the fire from spreading to nearby buildings. “The agencies’ operatives handed over the charred remains of the family members to the police at Aguda Division.”
One of the deceased Chukwuemeka according to a resident Mrs Modecai, was a beneficiary of the Lagos State Government scholarship. She said: “ Chukwuemeka was supposed to get her certificate from her school principal today (yesterday). Had help come on time, they would have survived.”
