FROM OLANREWAJU LAWAL, BIRNIN-KEBBI
FIVE members of the same family including – four children and their mother were burnt to death in an early morning inferno on Friday in Argungu town, Argungu Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
Saturday Sun gathered that the incident occurred at about 1am, as a result of water heater, which the woman forget to remove from the electricity socket before going to bed. The fire ignited the rug, window blinds and then razed the entire bungalow.
The Chairman of the Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Alhaji Sani Dododo, who confirmed the incident in an interview with newsmen disclosed that the father of the victims, who is a staff of West African Cotton Company Limited (WACOT) was not at home when the incident happened.
“The incident happened around 1am on Friday, in the house of a WACOT staff, Malam Umar Argungu, who was on duty on that day. His wife was in the house with her three children; two daughters and a boy as well as daughter of a neighbour who they sought her parents’s consent to keep them company because the husband was away,” he said.
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Dododo said the incident happened when the mother of the children tried to heat cold water with electric heater in the house.
“The woman forgot the heater and it kept on heating till all the water dried up and it caught fire, which resulted in the death of the woman, her three children and a neighbour’ s daughter,” he narrated.
The chairman, who described the incident as unfortunate, said the agency had already distributed relief materials to the victims.
He warned residents in the state to always make sure they switch off electricity in their house before they sleep during the night, especially during the harmattan season.