One month old baby escapes death as fire razes building in Lagos
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Tragedy was averted at Akowonjo area of Lagos State on Tuesday as sympathisers rescued a month old baby when fire razed down a building on Adesina Street.
Our correspondent gathered that the mother of the baby was sewing at a shop in front of the bungalow when the fire started around 10:00 am.
The mother was reported to have also said that she could smell that something was burning but she did not know what was on fire and she continued with her work.
But the alarm raised by her neighbours was said to have forced her to rush back to her apartment and she discovered that the adjoining rooms were already on fire with very thick smoke billowing from the building.
A resident, Mrs. Grace Balogun, told our correspondent the mother, with the help of her neighbours and sympathisers, broke into the room and rescued the baby unhurt.
Another middle age occupant of the building was seen crying, searching for her eight-year-old son, who was later discovered to have fled the house immediately she saw the building on fire.
Some of the occupants of the building were seen salvaging their belongings including small generators, guitars and clothes. Some of the salvaged materials were kept inside a branch of MFM Church close to the scene.
The fire raged as sympathisers struggled to put it out even without water because there was no electricity supply to pump water at even the water selling points close to the building.
Owners of some the buildings on the adjoining streets were seen breaking holes in their fences to pass water holes to the scene to help in putting out the raging fire.
Some of the angry residents wanted to attack officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and the Neighbourhood Watch, who came to fight the fire. But some of the residents persuaded the angry ones to allow the firefighters to work.
An armed female riot policewoman and other officials of the Neighbourhood Watch were later deployed to prevent residents from attacking the emergency workers.
One of the residents, who identified himself as Kamar told our correspondent that a boy of around 10 years of age, Precious, caused the fire. He said one wing of the L shaped building was razed down completely while the fire was prevented from destroying the other side.
He said, “One small boy, Precious, struck a matchstick to warm food with a camp gas and he dropped the stump carelessly close to their mattress. The mattress caught fire and the fire spread to other parts of the room from where it spread to other apartments.
“We called firefighters on 112 but they could not access the scene because the road leading to the street was closed. Somebody dumped broken blocks on the road and some abandoned vehicles on the street also prevented the fire trucks from getting close to the scene.
“Three fire trucks eventually came and they joined sympathisers to put out the fire. We just thank God that the fire was contained before it could spread to the telecoms base station close to the building. Fuel was kept at the base station and the situation would have been worse if it had spread to that place.”
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