Baby dies in inferno, another petrol tanker crashes

The season of fire in Lagos State continued on Sunday morning by claiming the life of an eight-month-old baby, identified simply as Ibukunoluwa, in the Oworonshoki area of the state.The incident happened less than a week after 15 people lost their lives in an inferno caused by a fallen tanker laden with 33,000 litres of petrol in the Kirikiri area of the state.Our correspondent, who visited the scene of the Sunday fire at Oke Erin Street, Oworonshoki, learnt that over 30 people were rendered homeless in the fire that lasted for over an hour.According to residents, the fire started around 10am after the elder sister of the deceased baby, who was cooking noodles, forgot to put the fire out.It was learnt that the mother of the baby, who is an employee of the Lagos State Waste Management Agency, was not home when the incident occurred.A victim, who identified herself only as Iya David, said the fire was able to spread to other rooms because many of the occupants of the compound had gone to church.She said, “I was in church when I started receiving telephone calls that my house had been gutted by fire. I quickly rushed down to the scene and saw that about six rooms were on fire. We quickly rallied around and attempted to put out the fire but it continued to spread.“We moved closer and that was when we heard the little baby crying. We saw the baby burning, but there was nothing we could do as the fire was too intense and the roof came crashing down.”Our correspondent learnt that because the houses were all made of wood and sawdust, the fire continued to spread and the residents called on the fire service for help.Source: The punch