Fire wipes out family of 7 in Benue

A mysterious fire outbreak has wiped out a family of seven in Benue State.

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It was a tragedy of the greatest proportion when a family of 7 were burnt to death in a midnight fire that gutted four flats of two bedrooms each at Anyamkor community in Gboko, Benue State.

The fire which was said to have started at about 11.40pm, consumed a man, one Lawani Oye, his wife and five children while other tenants in the other flats lost all their property.

Saturday Sun gathered from eyewitnesses that as soon as the fire started from Oye’s flat, his wife  known popularly as Mama Tunde, was the first to raise the raise the alarm, which prompted other neighbours to rush out of their flats.

One of the neighbours narrated:

"We were jolted out of sleep with the shout from the neighbour’s flat as Mama Tunde was shouting fire! fire!! fire!!!. It was her shout that woke us up and we all rushed out of our flats without evacuating anything."

But before the neighbours could mobilise to tackle the inferno in the absence of fire fighters, the flat had caved in trapping the family who were burnt beyond recognition.

Anothe neighbour said they could not immediately ascertain the cause of the fire but that the  only clue was that the generator was running in the night and by the time they went round after the fire, they saw a lantern near the generating set.

It was gathered that the charred bodies of the de­ceased were left at the premises of the General Hospital, Gboko, be­cause the workers were on strike.