KEROSENE EXPLOSION KILLS SIBLINGS, INJURES TWO OTHERS
A resident in the building, Juliet Igwebuike, in her own account, confirmed that she was at the scene of the incident explaining thus,“I was just coming back from church. I went inside to change when I started hearing shouts calling for help’.
‘I thought he was quarrelling with his sister. But the boy kept ‘shouting help oh!’ ‘It’s fire oh!’ So, I rushed out immediately. He was already outside the room trying to put out the fire on him’, she said.
“There was no way to enter the room. I checked the door net and it was locked. I checked the window, it was locked too. Later, the other man took courage and broke the door net that was locked. The boy had earlier broken the window glass and jump out.
“He kept screaming that his brother and sister were inside. One Calabar man in the house, my neighbour, went inside with courage. The other man also moved in also. I was standing at the window. They threw out the first child, a girl, from the window and I picked her and poured her water. Later they threw out the second child, a boy, and I also poured him water,” she narrated.
Penpushing reports that the Command Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Loveth Odah, confirmed the incident,adding that the police have arrested the filling station’s manager, Emmanuel Omiyi, and the kerosene pump attendant, Anayo Ayu, for interrogation.
She further disclosed that some samples of the kerosene have been taken from the facility for laboratory test.
Speaking on the incident, Chief Consultant at the Burns and Plastic Surgery unit of Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (FETHA), Nnadozie Ugochukwu, said the four-year-old was 100 percent burnt.
“The six-year-old was about 95 percent burnt; several degrees burn. The only thing that remained was a little part of her hairs. The 17-year-old boy sustained about 57 percent burns. And because they stayed so long inside that place, they had difficulty in breathing even by the time they came,” he added.
