Two children of the same parent, a boy and a girl, were confirmed dead yesterday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, following a fire outbreak that occurred at a supermarket attached to Bovas Petrol Station.
The victims were stated to be children of the wife of the station’s manager.
Based on what was gathered, the woman (name withheld) and her three children were inside the supermarket when the fire started.
While she escaped death narrowly with heavy burns on her back and succesfully rescued one of the children, the other two children got trapped and burnt to death.
The Director of Osun State Fire Service, Mr Michael Ogundipe, stated that his department responded immediately they were alerted about the incident but could not get there early, due to traffic on the road.
“Immediately, we got the Save Our Soul (SOS) message, we sent two vehicles to the scene of the incident immediately but the area was not accessible due to traffic,” he stated.
“We met the fire but our efforts were to no avail because the building was not good. There is only one exit in the building,” he also stated. If there were more exit, the victims would have been saved.
He also confirmed the victims were a boy and a girl.
Ogundipe, stated that the cause of the fire outbreak could not be ascertained at press time.
He, however, advised Nigerians to obey the safety codes by obtaining fire extinguisher in order to prevent such tragedy.
He said: “I observed that there is no fire extinguisher at present in the fire station. If they had, they would have been able to stop the fire before it escalated."