Mother Of 3 Loses 2 Daughters In Anambra Fuel Fire Inferno At Awkuzu

              

Odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com reports that it was a black Tuesday night for Mrs. Patience Egwuonwu a widow and orphan from Amaudara village, Awkuzu in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State as she watched helplessly while her two daughters were roasted alive by a fire incident that gutted her bedroom.

Her nightmare did not stop at that. She is currently battling for her own survival and that of her only surviving son at the St. Charles Boromeo Hospital, Onitsha where they are lying critically unconscious at the intensive care unit of the hospital.

odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com reports further that the fire outbreak, according to sources, sparked off at about 9 p.m, penultimate Tuesday from a candle light and was magneted by inflammable quantities of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (Petrol) which she had stored inside her bedroom.

According to the source, Patience was a black market petrol seller at Awkuzu and she used to store her unsold stock outside her four-room apartment but when she discovered that village thieves usually steal some litters at nights, she now resorted to storing the unsold ones inside her bedroom, for safety.

The source stated that having found out that the new arrangement was more favourable to her, she now adopted the idea completely and allegedly kept storing her goods inside her bedroom at nights whenever she was closing for the day's business and brought them out for sale during business hours.

But on the fateful night when she had already retired from business for the day and stored her unsold goods under her bedroom, as usual, all her three children, including six year-old Emeka (male), four year-old Blessing (female) and two year-old Ezinne (female) were already asleep inside the bedroom and she was also about to lie down when all of a sudden, a stick of a burning candle she lit fell off from the table into the bedroom mattress.

As she was struggling to extinguish the candle light from the mattress, it was gathered, the flame of the burning candle which had already touched the mattress, sparked off fire under neat where quantities of the PMS were stored and within a twinkle of an eye, the whole bedroom ignited fire and went up in flame.

The source also hinted that out of confusion, she started shouting for help and by the time the neighbourhood could rush, the two daughters, Blessing and Ezinne had already been roasted by the inferno, while Emeka and herself were rescued alive before the villagers started pandering from house to house in search of water to put off the fire.

It was gathered that after the villagers succeeded in bringing the inferno under control, which had already destroyed every pin inside the bedroom, they now rushed her and the surviving child to the hospital for medical attention.

At the female ward of the hospital, Patience who though was responding to treatments, was still unconscious with burns all over her body. However, three women who gave their names as Helen Igweudu, Gloria Ndu and Cordelia Nwafor, pleaded with both the governments, individuals and groups to come to her assistance in terms of funds.

The President-General of Awkuzu Progressive Union, APU, Mr. George Echesi who spoke through the APU Treasurer, Innocent Okafor at the union secretariat, Awkuzu, confirmed the incident, adding that they had even buried the two victims, based on police permit.

They disclosed that an investigation carried out by the local vigilante showed that she was a dealer on black market petroleum product and because thieves usually steal her goods at nights where she usually stored them outside her rooms, she now decided to store them inside the room, for safety.       

       

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