TWO siblings, Itunu and Damilare Omolere, were burnt to death in a fire incident which occurred at Edo Lodge area of the capital city of Ondo State, Akure.
The fire incident which was suspected to have been caused by a candle burnt the two children to death before help could reach them.
The victims, four-year-old Itunu, and two-year-old Damilare were said to be left in the house by their eleven-year-old sister around 7 pm to buy some items for the children.
It was learnt that their sister who met the whole house on fire, called for help from their neighbours who called the men of the Ondo State Fire Service who claimed there was no water and fuel to power the fire service van to the scene of the incident.
The source, however, said it took the efforts of the residents to put out the fire after waiting for the Fire Service officers endlessly but the two children have been burnt beyond recognition.
The corpses were said to have been taken away by their relatives and buried.
However, some residents of Akure community took to the street on Wednesday, to register their displeasure over what they called insensitive of the state government to the fire incidents that have claimed lives and properties of individuals in the state.
The protesters under the auspices of Creative Gangs converged on the office of the Fire Brigade in Alagbaka and moved to the Governor’s Office chanting various anti-government songs
The angry protesters armed with different placards with inscriptions including “We want a reformed fire service system” “No to Government insensitivity” and “We want a working Government”, said the two children of the Blessing Timidi Omolere were burnt to death because the state government failed to fund the Fire Service.
The youth-led by Mrs Tosin King and Mr Ayokunle Ajisafe said the death of two children of one of their colleagues; Itunu and Damilare Omolere was a cause for concern among residents of the state.
Ajisafe explained that the parents of the children were out of the house when the fire incident occurred and efforts by the neighbour to put off the fire were futile as the children were burnt to ashes.
The leader of the protesting youth said the neighbours went to the Fire Service but was told there was no water in the appliance and no fuel to move the vehicles to a distance of about 200 meters to the scene of the incident.
Ajisafe said they want to bring the consciousness of the government to the parlous state of affairs of the Fire Service. He said several lives would have been saved if the Fire Service was functioning.
He said “we know we cannot bring the dead back but we don’t want to have a repeat of this kind of incident. Nobody prays for this, but the lives of the people are important to us.
“It has become the national anthem that there is no water, no fuel by the Fire Service whenever there is fire incident. It is high time they called the head of the organization to order. We are tired of losing lives in fire incidents. It is the Omoleres today; it could be anybody’s children tomorrow.”
The group noted that similar incident happened beside the Deji of Akure palace last week, where over 100 shoos were razed by the inferno while the Fire Service claimed there was nothing they could do.
This development came as the President of the Association of Office Documents and Computers, Mrs Elizabeth Orogun, died of heart attack on Tuesday.
Orogun was one of the shop owners whose shops were gutted by fire last week at the Rate Office of Akure South Local Government.
Late Orogun, mother of five died on Monday as a result of the shock caused by her loss in the inferno, while her husband, Jacob Orogun, said his wife died as a result of the shock over the burning of the two shops in the fire incident.
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