FIRE GUTS ENUGU VANGUARD REPORTER’S HOME

Maureen Onuora in Enugu

A strange fire has gutted the home of Mrs Owaa Adonu, widow and mother of Enugu State Vanguard reporter  , Chinedu Adonu, while the cause  of the inferno still remained unknown as at the time of filing this report

Penpushing reports that the fire occurred at Amufie community, in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State at about 10:30 pm, when the widow and one of her daughters, a  Nurse, had already gone to bed and fast asleep.

The inferno, engulfed the 3-bedroom bungalow and destroyed everything inside, and in reaction to the incident, the widow said, but for her daughter’s alertness, the fire would have consumed them inside the building.

Penpushing further reports that, the woman while thanking neighbours and other villagers who had rushed in to rescue them, called on various governments and spirited individual to help her and her family to restart life all-over.

“Why would God allow this sort of calamity to befall me now that my bones are weak, and my husband is late? Where do I start? Everything I had as a human being are gone. My wrappers, all my savings from palm oil and palm kernel sales were consumed’, she lamented.

“Please, those who know the road to Enugu should help me beg the Governor and Ndi Oyibo (meaning the government) to come and save me from imminent death. This is too much for my children to handle,” the widow cried.

Penpushing also reports that, narrating how the incident occurred, Miss Eucharia Adonu, said she was fast asleep when suddenly, she began to get choked up, adding that she immediately sprang up only for her to behold their house being ravaged by the raging inferno.

“I was still dazed with sleep when I got up and thought it was a dream. But when I saw how the fire, with thick smoke, was fast enveloping us, my eyes cleared and I screamed on top of my voice, calling for help. I didn’t exactly know what I was doing because I was already overwhelmed’.

“Neighbours came almost immediately I called for help but the fire had gained immense momentum and we could not save even a pin. But we are grateful to God that no life was lost,” she said, adding, “only God knows how the fire came about; we do not know. It could not have been power surge because there was no power when we were going to bed. We don’t use lantern except torchlight”.

Penpushing reports that on his part, an eyewitness, Chima Ugwuoke said that the fire was later put off but after it had destroyed everything inside the house, stating, “the fire started from one of the rooms in the apartment’

‘We don’t know the cause of the fire because by the time we got to the scene following an SOS alarm, it was already raging with force. But we were able to stop it from spreading to the adjoining building”, the eyewitness narrated

Penpushing further reports that the Vanguard’s reporter, Chinedu Adonu, expressed gratitude to God for sparing the lives of his mother and sister in the unfortunate inferno, pointing out that the major task facing him was how to manage his mother to save her from yielding to the shock that the disaster had occasioned.

Hear him as he lamented, “the fire destroyed everything, but thank God that my mother and sister, who were already asleep when the fire started, were saved,”