Two siblings were on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 burnt to death as a fuel station caught fire in Osogbo, Osun State.
It was learnt that the deceased were the children of the owner of the fuel station known as Bovas Filling Station in front of Osogbo Grammar School.
The mother of the kids sustained burns as she tried to rescue her children, although she was able to save one while the two others died.
The charred remains of the victims were taken to the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Mortuary.
According to Eyewitnesses said the woman and her three children were inside the mini market attached to the filling station when the fire started. The woman was said to have escaped with one of the kids, but the other two kids were burnt alive.
One of the eyewitnesses told Punch that the two kids dodged beside a refrigerator inside the supermarket, but they were killed when the fire gutted the fridge and the compressor exploded.
The witness, Williams Ojo, said firefighters arrived at the scene late, saying that was why the fire was able to cause so much damage.
He stated that the fire could have been caused by a spark from the refrigerator, adding that the damage had already been done before the firefighters arrived.
The Director of the Osun State Fire Service, Mr. Michael Ogundipe, confirmed the deaths.
He said, “Two lives were lost in the fire. We have not detected the cause of the fire. We responded immediately we were called. We sent two vehicles. We have equipment, but there was congestion on the road, which slowed down their movement.
“We met the fire burning, but I observed that the construction of the building did not follow the guideline. There was no exit route. No fire extinguisher was there. They would have been able to battle the fire if they had extinguishers.”
