A fire outbreak in a house at Nkangbe, a suburb of Minna, the Niger state capital has resulted in the death of a woman and her three children, including a month- old- baby.
According to sources, the fire incident was said to have occurred at about 11.30 pm and raged for over three hours razing the house to the ground.
The second woman in the house identified as Fati and her two children were however, rescued with severe burns and are currently in the hospital receiving treatment.
It was gathered that the owner of the house whose name was given as Baba Abba was not at home when the incident happened as he works in Abuja and only visits on weekends.
The men of the state fire service who were called to the scene responded to the distress call immediately, but the rescue was hampered by the jammed doors and window burglaries, making rescue very difficult.
Neighbours said they do not know the cause of the fire as they have not had electricity for over two months because of a faulty transformer.
The cause of the fire remains a mystery as even the fire service personnel are working assiduously to find out the cause of the fire incident.
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A neighbour who took part in the rescue and gave his name as Musa Ibrahim said that they called the fire service immediately they saw flames coming from the house.
He said that they tried their best to rescue the women and the children, but could not make any headway because of intensity of the fire.
“We tried as much as we could, but we couldn’t get inside. With the help of the fire service, we rescued the second wife through the window and she was wounded and had some burns.
“When we were able to get inside as men of the fire service tried their best to rescue the second wife and her children, but before we could get inside, they were already burnt,” Ibrahim narrated.
A fire officer confirmed that they were yet to ascertain the cause of the fire, stating that “we received a distress call from those in the area and we tried to help fight the fire. We met people trapped inside the house, but we were able to rescue only three people.
“There were four casualties and the cause of the fire is not known. The people here say their transformer has been bad and they said the people in the house did not put on the generator that night.
“Everything in the house was burnt down, nothing could be salvaged. It is very unfortunate. We are awaiting the arrival of our controller to come and access the house. “
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