Fire Outbreak Kills Three Children , Destroying Property

An early morning fire outbreak on Saturday in Ado village, Karu Local Government Area Nasarawa State has burnt three children of the same parents to death.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in the area reports that the incident, which has thrown residents of the area into mourning, also razed a bungalow.

The cause of the fire which started at about 6:30 a.m. could not be ascertained as at the time of this report.

However, an eyewitness, Mr Cambric Ayet who lost property to the fire said: ‘‘My wife was the first person who came out to see heavy smoke coming out of a neighbour’s room and started shouting fire, fire.’’

The victim said on hearing his wife’s voice, he went out to shout for help and to rescue his co-tenant, who unknown to him was not at home except the children who were sleeping in the room while the inferno was on.

‘‘On going to the room, l noticed that it was locked and l thought my neighbour was cooking, locked the room and went out since there was no electricity throughout the night.

‘‘It was when we were trying to break the door to have access to the room that we saw our neighbour, (the mother of the children) coming toward the house.

‘‘As she saw people and the incident, she started shouting my children, my children; that was when we got to know that three children were inside the room.’’ he said.

Mr Sunday Ugwa, the father of the deceased children, gave their names as Chimobi, Chinonso and Destiny: three, five and eight yeras.

He said he was confused when he got the news of the incident through a neighbour.

Ugwa said, ‘‘My wife explained that she went to buy a recharge card and she was not cooking before she went out; what then could be the source of the fire?

‘‘My wife does not cook inside, our kitchen is outside; we don’t use gas to cook because of the children, how come about such fire,?’’ he asked.

Commenting on the event upon his arrival at the scene, Mr Zaks Wambi, DSP, in charged of New Nyanya Police Station, Karu, described the incident as unfortunate.

Wambi, who condoled with the victims, advised members of the public to desist from using inferior gas cooking equipment.

‘‘We have experienced series of such incidents resulting from keeping gas inside the kitchen to cook which is not proper,“ he said.

With the approval of the parents of the deceased, their corpses were conveyed in the police van for burial.