Fuel scarcity: Father, two daughters die in petrol explosion •Mother runs out naked with last child •Tragedy caused by stored fuel —Fire Service

Residents of communities in Somolu area of Lagos State have been thrown into mourning, following the death of a father and his two daughters in a petrol explosion incident.

The incident which happened at about 10:00 p.m. at 5, Adebiyi Street, consumed one Alhaji Kamorudeen Ajibade, aged 65, and his daughters, Wuraola, 19 and Shakirat, 15  when they tried to rescue their father who was trapped.

It was gathered that the wife of the deceased, identified as Rachael, who managed to escape on seeing her husband and children burning, ran out of the house naked with her last child.

The deceased first daughter, Mrs Tawa Olasunkanmi, said “I was on my way home after closing from shop when I got a phone call from my father’s neighbour that my father and my step sisters had been consumed by fire. Immediately, I went to his residence only to see mammoth crowd gathered in the compound, crying and wailing. I was later told my father died as a result of fuel explosion which occurred when he was filling his generating set with petrol.”

A neigbhour of the deceased, Mrs Rukayat Ibrahim, said “when Alhaji returned from work, he asked Shakirat, one of the daughters, to prepare tea for him, she went inside the room to prepared the water for the tea, while her father went to fill their generator beside where she was boiling the water, but they did not know the generator was leaking. Shakirat, who was inside the room came out of the room with water to assist her father with her phone’s light pointing at the generator, suddenly what we heard was a loud sound.”

The late Wuraola,  who was also inside the room, was said to have ran out of the house when she heard a loud noise  and went  to where her father and sister were and while trying to rescue them, she was also consumed by the fire.

A neighbour, who did not want his name in print said “It is a awful experience as they were all burnt beyond recognition.  Even before the fire fighters gained access to the house, it was not easy. The crowd was massive. Nobody knew they were trapped there. We thought they escaped. It was after the fire fighters passed through another building and they brought out their remains that we knew they were dead.”

It was gathered that the deceased was meant to be appointed as a unit Chairman of Onipanu Phase 2, branch of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) before his demise.

The Chairman (NURTW), Bajulaiye Abiodun Unit, Mr Sulaiman Allison, said, they were together on Tuesday at the motor park discussing about his inauguration and “I was surprised when I received a phone call about his death. His death is a big loss to the Union in Somolu we will miss him.”

The late Ajibade’s daughter, Shukurat Shabi, said, I am yet to believe that my father and my sisters are gone. “My father is a hardworking man. When it is time for him to be rewarded for his effort towards the progress of transport business in Somolu, he died, He just bought a bus three weeks ago to complement the one he had before and it was the same bus he was siphoning fuel from to power the generator which later caught fire.” She said.

The deceased according to a neighbour, Vincent Achum, just collected N400, 000 from a cooperative society, but the money also got burnt in the fire incident.

He said: “it is unusual of the deceased to return home early because he ply Fola Agoro to Onipanu  but yesterday he came early and asked for a cup of tea and died without taking the tea. The fire did not spread to other apartment in the compound.”

 Check the Nigerian Tribune newspaper for the full story.