November 12, 2014 – Three children, born of one family were last night consumed by an inferno in Lagos while the parents were elsewhere in a marathon prayer.
The incident which occurred at Jakande Estate, Mile 2, Lagos threw the neighbourhood into confusion. Eye witness give the names of the affected children as Ayomide Ilori, 10; Temiloluwa, 7 and an eight months old Durosimi.
We gathered that the parents left home for an all-night marathon prayer session in one of the new generation churches in the area. The fire raised the top floor of Block 56, which has two flats of three bedrooms.
Officials of the Lagos State Fire Service stormed the area a little bit late after the damage has already been done.
Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe told reporters that parents of the children locked them indoors before leaving for a marathon prayer session in one of the churches.
The children, he said lit a candle and went to sleep without putting it out since there was no adult at home to supervised them. He explained that the candlelight consumed the apartment and the children in their sleep after burning out the wax.
Fadipe advised parents never to lock their children indoors without supervision to avert disaster.
“I always advise people not to light a candle and go to bed. We cannot tell them not to buy and use candle because people produce them to sell, but they should not leave it and go to bed.
“In this era of portable rechargeable lamp that are cheap, people could purchase them for use in their houses,” he advised, adding that Lagosians must be fire conscious, especially as the dry season is here.
“We mobilised the Isolo fire station and we got 10,000 litres of water and also mobilised the Sari-Iganmu Fire Station and got another 10,000 litres of water to put out the fire in the building,” he said.
Fadipe lamented that people in the area damaged firefighting equipment deployed to the scene in the midst of the confusion.
