Close neighbours of the family of three that lost their lives during a fire incident in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have recounted how the incident occurred.
DAILY POST recalls that a family of three consisting of a man, his wife and their grandchild lost their lives in a fire incident that occurred on Friday at Omotara compound in Ori Eru, Idikan in Ibadan North West Local Government Area.
A 60-year-old man, known as ‘Baba Yunus’, his wife and their eight-year-old grandson, Samuel, were burnt to death during the incident.
The General Manager of Oyo State Fire Service, Mr. Yemi Akinyinka confirmed the incident
Akinyinka in a statement made available to DAILY POST added that five people were rescued.
“We evacuated three bodies. But, you know that only the doctors can confirm anyone dead.
“The unfortunate incident was reported to our agency at exactly 03:46hrs on Friday, 20th December, 2024.
“Immediately the address was taken, the men and officers of the agency led by ACFS Oyedeji were promptly deployed to the scene of the incident.
“On arrival, we met an upper floor of a storey-residential building of six rooms well alight, we swiftly swung into action and the fire was completely extinguished.
“Three (3) bodies: husband and wife and their grandson, while five persons were rescued alive from the building. The ground floor of the building was protected and other nearby properties,” he said.
Close neighbours to the victims have now described the incident as unfortunate and shocking.
The residents said that the deceased cried till death.
A neighbour, who identified herself as Bose Ayinde, said that the fire incident started in the early hours of Friday.
“The fire started at midnight when we had all slept off; we suddenly heard a loud voice.
“We even thought it was thieves that came to our house.
“When we rushed out, we realised it was fire, we could not help the victims because the fire was so heavy to the extent that no one can even move close to it, we are very sad because both husband, wife and their grandson got burnt to death,” she disclosed.
Another resident, Mr. Aliu Omotara, described the incident as unfortunate.
“We suddenly heard the victims shouting fire, fire around 3 am; the fire started from their parlor, all our efforts to rescue them proved abortive.
“NEPA (sic) used to give us light between 12:30am to 6:30 in the morning.
“When the fire started, the victims started shouting for rescue, the couples slept inside the room but the fire started from their parlour, so, there was no other exit for them except through the parlour.
“Their efforts to escape through the window proved abortive because of the burglary in the window.
“The wife died first; he husband and son came to the window shouting for help, we were downstairs looking at them upstairs, but we couldn’t help them because the fire was so heavy that no one can even move close to it.”
Another neighbour, who identified herself as Mrs Dupe Ajibade, said that the the house was already being razed before the arrival of the state fire service.
She said, “If not for people in the area that tried their best to curtail the fire, all houses close to the area would have got burnt.
“The house has already being razed before the arrival of the fire fighters.
“We could not control tears when the bodies of the victims were brought out.
“We heard they were cooking with hot plate, but slept off in the process.”
Ibadan fire disaster: Neighbours recount how victims cried till they gave up