What could be responsible for the recurrent fire that has razed a storey building located at number 4, Akinrinlo Street in Shomolu, Lagos?
This is the question on the lips of every resident of the area, when, again, on Tuesday last week this building was razed for the second time in two years.
The tenants in the house had gone to bed before the inferno, which engulfed the structure in the middle of the night, was sparked off.
It was only by providence that all the tenants in the house escaped being trapped and burnt in the raging inferno. But they lost property worth millions of naira.
The house was first razed by fire two years ago and it was only rebuilt last year before the new tenants moved into it this year.
Nobody understands what is happening to this house anymore. We had moved in before we were informed by other residents on this street that the house had become a victim of yearly fire outbreak. Now, my family has lost all I have worked for all these years in this incident. Where do I start from?
This recurrent mysterious fire razing the house almost every year has set tongues wagging in the area that the building must have been “charmed” or cursed. Some residents are even of the opinion that some fetish objects must have been buried in the house, causing the building to be engulfed by fire yearly.
“Nobody understands what is happening to this house anymore. We had moved in before we were informed by other residents on this street that the house had become a victim of yearly fire outbreak. Now, my family has lost all I have worked for all these years in this incident. Where do I start from? I don’t even know, I’m confused,” a tenant, who refused to be identified, said.
On Wednesday morning, when the officials of the Lagos State Fire Service visited the scene of the fire incident, the upper floor of the building had been totally razed by the fire.
One of the fire fighters advised the tenants to vacate the house immediately, not minding whether they still had their personal belongings therein or not.
He said that the building must be demolished to avoid any future disaster that may occur because the structure had become weak and compromised by the fire that had razed it.
Meanwhile, it was by sheer luck and providence that a two-year-old girl was rescued by people from the raging inferno as the building was being razed by the fire.
The mother of the girl and her siblings had run for their lives when the fire started, thinking that the last born of the family had been rescued. But on getting outside and not finding the girl, her mother raised the alarm.
Fortunately for the family, efforts made by the sympathisers around paid off as they were able to rescue the little girl.
They immediately rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Daramola Kazeem,
Shomolu,
Lagos.
