Fire razes Christ Apostolic Church, 42 children escape death in Enugu

A mysterious fire at the weekend razed down the Christ Apostolic Church located along Ogurugu road in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State. The cause of the fire which could not be ascertained started at the residence of the senior pastor on top of the church while 42 children were holding a prayer and fasting session ahead of Christmas inside the church. Our correspondent gathered that no casualty was recorded but valuables worth millions of naira were lost to the inferno. When our correspondent visited the area, sympathizers and men of the state fire fighting were still battling to put off the fire from spreading to other buildings and properties in the area. Church property and personal belongings of the pastor and family were completely razed to ashes before the fire could finally be controlled after about 1.30hour battle by the fire service men who arrived the scene with three fire fighting trucks. Rev. K.C Uche speaking to newsmen on the spot of the incident the resident senior pastor of Christ Apostolic Church (House of Grace Assembly) Rev. K.C Uche said it was surprising to him how the church was gutted by unknown fire as he was the last person to leave his apartment upstairs to meet the 42 children rounding off their annual fasten and prayers for the Christmas season. “We suddenly started hearing people shouting fire, fire across the main road while thick smoke covered the entire building. “We rushed the children amidst the thick smoke and rescued all of them without any of them being hurt. The children were with the junior Pastor at the church hall when the fire started, there was no electricity, the gas cylinders in my apartment were not on as nobody was at home as at the time of the incident. “Nobody can say exactly how the fire started. I am not suspecting anybody, I am a terror to the kingdom of darkness but I believe it was a spiritual matter as they fired back after many times of trial at my family. “For the past two days there was no electricity supply, we have been using generating set as the only source of power in the church. Last week I and my children observed three days prayer against fire disaster. My family together with church lost over N15 million worth valued property to the fire incident. My greatest joy was the miraculous safety of the 42 children praying in the church as at the time of the incident’’ Uchena Walaka, children supervisor of the church said that he was with the children when they stated hearing fire, fire outside while people scampered for safety and we managed to rescue the 42 children as the fire raged. He noted that he was using generator with the children for the annual prayer session when the church went up in flames and no life was lost. Reacting to the fire incident, operations manager Enugu state fire service Nsukka zone Mr. Obinna Oche said that the station received distress call that a house was on fire, “we rushed to the scene barely 10 minutes later due to traffic hold up along the road.” Oche advised the general public to always put off all electrical appliances when leaving the home to avoid fire outbreak, urging landlords to avoid building houses in clustered areas as the fire service will finds it difficult to penetrate certain compounds to discharge their civic duty. The operations manager observed that the inability of his men to gain entrance made it difficult for them to quickly put off the flame. “We would have put off the fire within 30 minutes but it took us an hour and 30 minutes to stop the fire”, he said. Moses Oyediran, Enugu