How 9-year-old boy dancer, his 3 siblings were burnt to death in Delta

The blossoming future of a nine-year-old came to an abrupt halt late Tuesday night in Warri. The life of the unidentified boy in KG3 was cut short along that of her three sisters in an inferno largely attributable to extreme poverty.

Thus, last Wednesday morning was a tragic day never to be easily forgotten in the annals of residents of Animal Line by Dore Street, off MCiver Market in Warri, Delta State. They woke up to behold the charred bodies of these four siblings roasted overnight by an inferno that started at about 8:00p.m Tuesday, the previous day.

The mother of the four children (one boy, three girls), from age six months to nine years, had returned from her trade, put some food on fire, locked the door behind the kids and excused herself to take some shower. Her abode was a room extension Warri landlords are notorious for carving rooms out of verandas, pavements and other available spaces in between houses which they rent out at cut-throat prices to make more money.

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Mournful witnesses, who spoke to Saturday Tribune said the mother of four had earlier received a keg of kerosene which she kept inside the room. She was a retailer of kerosene. So, while taking her shower in the general bathroom, she heard shouts of “fire oooo, fire ooo” from the landlord. She jumped out of the bathroom, opened her room and saw the house engulfed in smoke and fire. Remembering that her four children were locked in, she defied the inferno and dashed in to rescue them. She herself was, in the process, engulfed by the inferno.

As the woman was screaming for the whereabouts of her children in flames, which had extended to adjoining rooms and houses, one of the panic-stricken tenants was said to have told her that they had been evacuated to safety unknown to her that the ceiling of her room had caved in upon the children on the floor and were being burnt. The voice was said to have further hinted albeit wrongly that the kids had been evacuated to A Division of the Warri Area Command of the Nigeria Police. Having sustained severe burns while braving through the fire to search for her kids, sympathisers, as it was gathered, got hold of her, put out the flames that had engulfed her and rushed her to a hospital in Oghara that Tuesday night!

As of this time, fire fighters from the Delta State Fire Service had reportedly arrived the scene and had maneuvered through the clustered houses to put out the fire. Their professional effort complemented the crude effort exerted by youths in the neighborhood. Job done, of course after much damage had already been incurred, the fire fighters left in triumph.

But sadly, came a moment for residents to recount their losses and check if one or two items could be recovered from the rubble, the gory sight of the charred carcasses of unidentified nine-year-old, Blessing, Favour and the sixth month old, whose name could not be got, were found!

A neighbor, Mr Patrick from Ughelli North, gave another version of the incident in Warri pidgin thus: “When this thing happened yesterday night around after eight, I went out, on my way coming back, I hear the landlord dey shout “fire, fire fire.” When I run enter the compound na I see the woman run come outside with fire for all her body. Na so we carry water dey pour for her body to take quench the fire.

“But she don dey make statement: ‘my children oo, my children oo,’ before we from outside come, fire don take over everywhere to enter this place go save the children, na wahala because the place too tight. So, na we rescue the woman carry her go Oghara. Everywhere too tight we no fit enter go save the children at all.”

As far as another neighbour could recollect, “Nobody even know say the children dey inside sef; na when fire fighters don quench the fire finish, come reach this morning wey dem they carry zinc come outside they come take see the children bodies.”

However, yet another neighbour, who identified herself to Saturday Tribune as Favour Ifeanyi, said in pidgin that “the boy na 9 years, he dey go Omatshola (a school) and he dey KG 3. He no quick start school. The second one na Blessing, 5 years, she no dey go school. Third one na Favour 3 years, no school too, then the last one na 6 months. The children dey respectful they get good character. The small boy wey be 9 years na dancer.”

Saturday Tribune gathered that the father of the children had long abandoned them and their mother whose major means of livelihood was selling garri, kerosene and starch. A keg of kerosene she allegedly kept in her room a few minutes before the incident was fingered as the cause of the inferno. The landlord of the burnt building, Mr. Tuoyo Eyikimi, said he suspected adulterated kerosene was cause of the inferno. Adulterated kerosene is a product usually from illegal refineries in the creeks. The product is a common feature among impoverished folks in slums situated along MCiver Market, being near Warri River and has been mostly responsible for regular fatal fire disasters at Ogbe Ijoh Market in that axis of Warri.

The discovery of the charred bodies of the kids coincided with the on-the-spot assessment visit of chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Dr Michael Tidi, on Wednesday morning. In fact, Tidi and his cabinet members were said to be the people who evacuated the burnt remains of the kids to the cemetery and also swiftly mobilised funds for the treatment of the mother who has been reportedly moved to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in Edo State.

Dr. Tidi, who expressed great shock when he saw the charred remains of the children, immediately directed the councilor representing Pessu Ward in Warri South Council Legislative Arm, Hon. Emmanuel Egbe, to discuss with leaders of the affected family, on how the only surviving eldest child of the woman, 18-year-old Prosper Obodo, who lives with his elder brother in another part of Warri, returns to school on scholarship.

The Warri South Chairman warned against the use of adulterated kerosene and tasked media practitioners as well as the National Orientation Agency to embark on advocacy against the sale and use of adulterated kerosene to avert further loss of lives and property.