Unmindful of the erratic power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, these occupants left home without switching off their electrical appliances. This error was to cost them dare as the return of power supply to the building resulted in a fire that destroyed so much that they had laboured to acquire over the years.
Mosted affected are occupants of the eight apartments four-bedroom flats on the second floor of the building. By the time the fire which started in the afternoon had burnt off its rage, about 52 occupants were left homeless with property worth millions of naira destroyed.
Eye-witnesses attributed the inferno to a high voltage power supply to the building after the occupants of the apartments had gone to work. By the time they could respond to distress calls made by their neighbours, it was all over.
Some of the occupants who did not want their names in print, also blamed power surge for the inferno.
An occupant who simply gave his name as Yomi told Vanguard Metro, VM, that there was power failure in the early hours of that fateful day and that many of the occupants did not switch off their electrical appliances before going to work.
Following the inferno at the building, other residents in the area now live in palpable fear, especially as they also experience electricity power surge in their own buildings.
Although fire fighters were said to have done their best in putting off the fire while it raged on Monday, thick, black smoke was still issuing from the back of the building as at the time VM visited the following day. Also, some occupants of the ground floor have sealed the entrance to the second floor to prevent further accident in the compound.
Since the incident occurred that Monday afternoon, the house has been playing host to sympathisers who come in their numbers to console the affected occupants of the building.
Efforts to speak with the affected victims proved abortive as none of them was around when this reporter visited the scene on Tuesday. However, residents said the inferno did not claim any life but destroyed household items and the third floor half of the remaining floors. ‘’Occupants of the four flats were not around when the incident happened and all their belongings were destroyed before help could come,’’ said Yomi.
Some of the less affected occupants gave glory to God that such incident did not happen at night. ‘’Thank God it happened in day time, only God knows how many lives would have been lost if it happened at night,” they said.
The occupants said the fire was first sighted by a shop owner, who rushed to the compound to confirm what she saw before she later alerted other shop owners and neighbours who made frantic efforts to put it off.
“On noticing this, some neighbours put a distress call across to the occupants who rushed to the apartment only to find that all their property have been destroyed by the fire,” they said.
Source:Vanguard
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