- Safiu Kehinde
Residents of Ibadan, Oyo state capital, has again witnessed another tragedy after fire guts a storey building, killing a couple and their grandson.
The incident which reportedly occured in the early hours of Friday at the Eru, Idikan area of the capital city was confirmed by the General Manager of Oyo State Fire Service, Yemi Akinyinka.
As contained in a statement made available to newsmen, Akinyinka said the personnel of the agency received a distress call about the incident through a call made by one Hassan at exactly 3:46 a.m on Friday and immediately deployed personnel to the scene.
“On arrival we met an upper floor of a residential storey building of six rooms well alight and we swiftly swung into action and the fire was completely extinguished,” he said.
The general manager confirmed that three persons made up of a husband,his wife and their grandson lost their lives in the fire incident while five persons were rescued alive from the building.
According to him, the ground floor of the building and other nearby properties were saved from the inferno.
Akinyinka, however, disclosed that the incident was caused by a naked fire ignited by the deceased victims in an effort to keep house warm due to the cold weather.
Unfortunately, they slept off as the fire wrecked havoc before daybreak.
“From our investigation we discovered that in their attempt to keep their house warm because of the cold weather they resulted to use naked fire which result to fire disaster after they had slept off,” he said.
Akinyinka said that a team of Police men led by CSP Olaniyan Jibola from Mapo Division and that of Amotekun led by Mr Gbenga Akinyemi from North West Division were on ground to prevent break down of law and order.
This is coming barely days after 35 minors were confirmed dead and several others injured in a stampede at an ill-fated Children funfair at Basorun area of Ibadan.