Four-year-old in critical condition, 11 families homeless as fire razes Lagos building
... Landlord takes refuge in church, grandparents, uncle hospitalised
By Bose Adelaja
CITIZENS COMPASS – A four-year-old girl, Faridat Shittu, is in critical condition with eleven families rendered homeless as fire raized a building
in the Ojokoro Local Council Development Area(LCDA) in Lagos.
The incident occurred yesterday, at 1,Odubanwo Street. Off Olaniyi Street, Gbinrin.
Three other adults, the grandfather, grandmother and an uncle to the four-year-old girl are also undergoing burn care with varying degrees of burns.
The Coordinator, Lagos State Territorial District, National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the incident to newsmen on Monday, February 5, 2024.
How it occurred – Grandmother
According to him, Farida’s grandmother who is in severe pain on her hospital bed told the NEMA team that she was frying meat and suddenly the oil caught flame and efforts to control it were beyond their capacity which led to explosion of the cooking gas.
The grandmother said Faridat was sleeping in the room when the incident happened yesterday at about 1400 hours but was rescued successfully by community members and other injured victims.
She said the whole building of 14 rooms including shops completely went down in rubble due to the intensity of the explosion thereby rendering 11 families homeless.
Farinloye said, “A 4 year old girl is in a critical condition at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) after a cooking gas explosion ravaged the residence of her parents located at 1,Odubanwo Street. Off Olaniyi Street, Gbinrinmi in Ojokoro LCDA, Lagos.
3 other adults, the grandfather, grandmother and her uncle are also undergoing burn care with various degrees of burns in the incident that occurred yesterday.
“The grandmother who is in severe pain told the NEMA team in hospital that she was frying meat and suddenly the oil caught flame and efforts to control it hot beyond their capacity which led to explosion of the cooking gas.
“The little girl of 4 years, Faridat Shittu was sleeping in the room when the incident happened yesterday at about 1400 hours but was rescued successfully by community members and other injured victims.
“The whole building of 14 rooms including shops completely went down in rubbles due to the intensity of the explosion thereby rendering 11 families homeless.
“The landlord of the victims, Pa Femi Odubanwo Solomon, disclosed that neighbours saved him from dying in the incident as he was initially trapped and ins presently squatting in a church opposite his destroyed house.”
In another development yesterday, a massive market fire razed a multiple purpose sawmill market located at Awori bus stop behind a new generation bank, Abule Egba, Lagos.
Items lost to the fire included about 100 planks and building materials shops,18 recycling of iron/steel shops, 19 diesel lister generators and 34 different types of motorcycles machines.
Others were five – 14 seaters buses, 3 cars and 2 trucks.
The market fire which started at about 1525 lasted till about 1720 before it was put out completely.
The incident was confirmed by Farinloye.
He said no one sustained any injury or casualty recorded.
“The Chairman of Ojokoro LCDA and his medical team were at hand rendering various assistance to the victims of both incidents that occurred in his area.’’
