How 60-year old man, baby died in Lagos New Year fire incidents

Tragedy struck on New Year day after a 60- year old man and an eight month- old baby lost their lives in different fire incidents in Lagos State.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that there were eight fire outbreaks in different parts of the state between January 1 and yesterday.

One of the incidents occurred at about 2am on January 1, at Ijaniki area of the state while majority of Christian faithful were either still at the cross over services or on their way back home.

It was alleged that the inferno at Ijaniki started when the cooking stove on which an unnamed woman was allegedly

frying some frozen chicken inside her one room apartment at 22 Morakinyo street exploded and burst into flames.

As the fire raged, the woman was said to have rushed to fetch water from the well to contain it but the fire reportedly engulfed the entire room where she laid her baby.

Her husband and other occupants were still said to be in the church praying when the incident happened. The fire was said to have spread to the other six rooms and a shop according to the Lagos State Director of Fire Service, Mr Rasaq Fadipe, who said that the arrival of fire service men, however, prevented the fire from spreading to other buildings.

The second incident which claimed the life of the 60 year-old man occurred same day at 21/23 Idowu Rafiu Street in Aboru part of the state.

The deceased identified as Solomon Olukwumu was said to have locked himself up in one of the rooms of a flat of a two storey building while other members of his family went to church.

Tragedy struck after smoke was noticed from the flat. Occupants of the building were said to have later succeeded in putting out the fire, but unknown to them that someone in one of the bedrooms was roasted before then.

The body of Olukumu was said to have been discovered upon the arrival of his family members

However, also confirm-ing the incident, Fadipe said the man could have died of suffocation, noting that his body only had slight burns in the inferno which affected only one of the rooms in the building.