commercial city of Onitsha was still very strong on Thursday when
Saturday Punch visited the scene of a fire disaster that claimed the
lives of a loving couple some days ago.
Though the compound is sealed off by a high perimeter fence and a tall
gate, the black stains left by the smoke of Sunday's fire on the upper
half of the one storey building, and the destroyed roof could well be
seen from afar.
The entire compound was, however, cordoned off by armed policemen,
said to have been dispatched there by the Central Police Station,
Onitsha to secure what was left of the property in the house. The
policemen would, however, not allow anyone near the building, not even
for press photographs to be taken.
The wealthy owners of the compound, identified as Mr. Boniface
Ndubuisi and his wife, Caroline, were said to have been choked to
death in their bedroom of the duplex by thick smoke emitted by the
fire that gutted the house while they were asleep.
Help could not come to them early enough because neighbours, who were
woken up by the fire incident, said to have started about 4 am, could
not break into the compound before daylight when men of the Anambra
State Fire Service came around; by which time it had become too late
to rescue them.
The fire, according to reports, was eventually put out at about 11 am,
some seven hours after it was ignited, through the combined efforts of
the fire service and sympathisers. The couple were brought of their
room dead.
Though the fire incident was a common story in town, neighbours around
Arinze Lane and the adjoining Okolo Street were not willing to speak
to our correspondent.
But snippets gathered by Saturday PUNCH said the man, popularly known
as Bonanza Ndubuisi in the business circles of Onitsha, was a major
importer of aluminium products and general goods. They hailed from
Nnokwa, a community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra
State.
The couple stayed in the house for short periods as they sometimes
spent their time in Enugu and sometimes Lagos and abroad where their
children are resident.
It was still not yet known what caused the fire. But it has been
speculated that it could have been ignited by an electrical fault due
to power surges experienced in the area.
The Onitsha Area Commander of the Nigeria Police Force, Mr. Benjamin
Wordu, who said his office received the report of the fire incident,
however said he was yet to receive comprehensive briefing on the
incident and what caused it. He however said the process of
investigating the incident has commenced.
One resident of neighbouring Okolo Street said, "We came out when we
heard people shouting for help, but we were constrained by the
fortified gate and high walls of the building. Before help could come,
the couple had suffocated to death in the thick smoke from the fire,
which engulfed the entire building."
Another resident said the couple, who had been away from their Onitsha
residence for a while, had actually returned to the house two days
before the fire. He said they had been in Enugu.
None of the family members was, however, around to speak to Saturday
PUNCH, which it was gathered that the couple had six children, three
of them resident in the United States, two in Abuja and one in Lagos.
The Divisional Police Officer in charge of Onitsha Central Police
Station, Mr. Temitope Fasugba, who said he joined his men personally
to the scene of the incident while the fire was raging, corroborated
the position of the Area Commander that investigation was on to
determine the cause of the incident.
He said that as an interim measure, he deployed policemen to the scene
of the fire to prevent people from looting the property saved from the
fire since the other family members of the Ndubuisi's were not yet
available to take possession of the property.
An official of the Anambra State Fire Service at Okpoko, who did not
want to be named, said the fire brigade responded promptly to the
incident.
"We drove to the street as soon as we got the information to put out
the fire. But I cannot say what caused the fire. We were there to
render service especially to control the fire from spreading it to
other buildings and also limit the damage. Ours is not to investigate
the cause of the fire," he said.
Like Moses Okoye, a resident of Onitsha, said had the home of the
Ndubuisis been easily accessible, maybe help would have come to them.
"You see, they said it was difficult to break into the compound and
then the house to put out the fire and save the people and the
property inside.
"I know there is a concern for security. But we should not provide
security and sacrifice safety. Insecurity is a thing of the mind. If
armed robbers want to attack you, they can just wait for you to open
your gate by youself and then they will come in with you," Okoye said.
He advised the town planning authorities to ensure that all building
plans submitted to them have provisions for emergency exits in the
case of fire or attacks.
Mr. Chukwubuike Nwoha, who said he is a safety engineer, said
householders should always keep fire extinguishers, sand and water
handy and accessible for use in times of emergencies like house fires.
He also advised the fire stations to publicise their public emergency
telephone lines for people to use in calling them in times of
distress. He also called for regular awareness campaigns targeted at
residents to teach them how to handle emergency fire situations.
Nwoha said though the Arinze Lane fire incident claimed lives and
valuable property, the effect was minimal because of the spacing that
existed between houses in the American quarters. "Can you imagine what
it would have looked like if that same fire had occurred in places
like Okpoko, where one house runs into another? It would have been a
colossal disaster.
The bodies of the couple were retrieved from the house after the fire
was put out and have since been deposited in a public mortuary in
Onitsha.
No comments:
Post a Comment