Two children burnt to death in Anambra

Tragedy struck on Sunday night at
Okpuno , a community in Awka South
local government area of Anambra
State, when fire razed down about 30-
bedroom bungalow inhibited mostly by
artisans , burning two children to death.
Daily Independent gathered that the fire
started when electricity was restored to
the area after two weeks of outage.
Another source had it that the fire
started from a candle light forgotten by
one of the tenants.
The fire incident which started at about
10 pm had fire service men arrive by
10 : 45 pm but before their arrival fire
had gutted the 30 rooms beyond
recognition , burning the two kids
identified as Onyebuchi and Ebuka .
The ages of the children were put at
one year and two years, respectively.
The fire destroyed property worth
several millions of naira including six
power generators, motorcycles and
other house hold equipment, eliciting
wailing and mourning by onlookers and
victims.
The mother of the two victims who wept
wild was said to be selling at her store
in front of the building when the fire
started but her efforts to rush in to
save her children proved abortive
sequel to heavy smoke emitting from
the rooms.
Their father was not in Awka when the
incident happened .
The mother was later admitted to a
nearby hospital after collapsing on the
death of her two male children out of
five she has.
An eye witness, Udonna Anigbo, told
Daily Independent that it was indeed a
pitiful sight as the occupants lost all
they had during the inferno and
appealed to good hearted individuals to
come to their aid .
He said people immediately started
contributing money to assist the
villagers who volunteered to transport
the corpses of the children home before
other issues would be looked into.
He commended the little effort of the
fire service men , as according to him,
they were timely but inaccessible routes
to the building prevented them from
timely execution of their duties .
He said without the fire fighters the fire
could have spread to other compounds
at the back of the house .
The man who inherited the house from
one late Mr Ezeh , according to sources,
was speechless before his kinsmen took
him away to avoid any regrettable act .