A seven-month old baby boy identified as Raphael Olawola, was on Thursday, January 1, 2015 allegedly roasted to death in a fire accident that rocked their home located at No. 2, Morountola Street, Ijanikin area of Lagos state.
It was learnt that the tragic incident occurred at about 2 AM on the fateful day when the mother of the deceased was cooking in their bungalow apartment while the baby was asleep.
According to sources, Olawola’s father went for a church programme while the woman started preparing some food ahead of the new year celebrations.
Unfortunately, the unidentified woman reportedly got busy behind the building abandoning the food on fire before the cooking pot eventually went up in flames.
One of their co-tenants raised raised an alarm but the fire reportedly spread too fast and razed the entire room together with the baby.
According to Vanguard , the occupants of the buildings were not in good terms with one another, a situation which prevented quick response from co-tenants until the situation had got out of hand.
Confirming the tragic incident, the Director of Lagos State Fire Services, Razaq Fadipe, disclosed that they received a distress call, although the fire had already razed the room before they arrived the scene.
Fadipe said, “At 2: 07a.m., we responded to a distress call at 22, Morountola Street on Lagos/Badagry Expressway by Ijanikin, which is a bungalow building of six rooms and a shop, which fire was curtailed from spreading to other buildings.
“However, a male infant of about seven months old was discovered dead during the fire fighting operations and handed over to the Police from the Ijanikin Division.
“Our preliminary investigations reveal that the fire resulted from an in-room cooking, where the infant was also kept.”
Meanwhile, the charred remains of the deceased baby was handed over to the police.
