…Father collapsed, hospitalized on hearing of children’s death
Akure— Two siblings have been roasted to death in a fire incident that gutted their home at Oluwatuyi quarters, in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The toddlers aged three and five, were said to have been locked inside a room by their mother and went to the market.
The two siblings were burnt beyond recognition in the fire incident.
According to sources, on hearing of the children’s death, their father collapsed and was rushed to the hospital by neighbours.
Vanguard learned that the fire incident started at about 3:30pm on Wednesday and burnt the children alive before help could come their way.
One of the neighbours said the fire had engulfed a large part of the apartment before they knew what was happening.
Another neighbour said they mistook the children’s cries, saying “We heard the children crying, but we did not know they were in distress. We thought it was their mother that was beating them.
“When the cries were getting too frequent, we decided to check only to see the house engulfed in fire. Efforts to extinguish the fire and rescue the children were unsuccessful due to the intensity of the flames.
“Their mother might have mistakenly left the gas on before leaving the house. We tried as much as we could, but we couldn’t get inside. We then called the Fire Service to come to the rescue, but all efforts proved abortive.”
The charred bodies of the siblings were found at the entrance of the apartment after the fire was put out and evacuated by policemen to the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, UNIMED, morgue in Akure.
