A block of four flats located along Demonstration Road in Gwagwalada, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was on Saturday razed down by fire.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Correspondent who witnessed the incident reports that efforts by men of the FCT Fire Service to put out the fire which started at about 10 a.m. was abortive. Some occupants of the flat who spoke to NAN blamed the cause of the fire on one of the occupants whom they alleged left her cooker on.
The suspected, occupant however, denied the allegation, saying that she had not even opened her kitchen when the fire broke out. “I had not even opened my kitchen this morning.
I just went across the road to buy chicken and met the house on fire on my return. “My little baby would have been in the fire if not that I carried him with me,'' Ifeoma Amadi, the occupant, said in tears One of the occupants, simply identified as Augustus, was said to have travelled to Enugu this morning to attend his sisters` burial.
While other occupants of the building were seen salvaging a few property from their flats, everything in Augustus` room was burnt as access could not be gained into his apartment. Meanwhile, Mr Ignatius Amadi, the Caretaker of the block of flats, said that the fire started from the mattress of one of the occupants.
He alleged that the occupant may have left her phone on her mattress while charging it, adding that there may have been electricity spark somewhere.
The house, which according him, was the major source of income to the owner, was completely razed with properties worth millions of Naira. Some of the occupants of the flats said that besides their property that were burnt in the inferno, there were other valuable documents including certificates and cash. (NAN)