A fire incidence at Victoria Garden City, Lagos Island has claimed the life of Theresa Jimoh, the mother of a business mogul, Jimoh Ibrahim.
It was learnt that the fire,
which started in the early hours of
Saturday, was caused by candlelight.
She was reported to have
slept off while praying at her
residence on Road 3 , House B 8, was burnt to death before the intervention of firefighters from the Lagos State Fire Service .
Her remains were said to have been
handed over to officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency , who deposited them in a morgue.
The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service , Rasak Musbau , confirmed the incident, adding that residents on the estate had tried in vain to manage the
inferno before the fire service was
called.
He said the fire was suspected to have been caused by a lit candle.
Musbau said , “ We got the call in the early hours of Saturday and the Lekki
Fire Station responded to it. The VGC estate has a fire unit . So , before we were called, they had been trying to contain the fire on their own; but they were overwhelmed.
Their vehicle also had a fault .
“When we got there, the fire was wellalight. We recovered the woman with the joint efforts of LASEMA officials, who took away her corpse
.What we gathered was that she always had prayer sessions, and maybe in the process, she lit a candle and slept off.”
He said , “ Someone had heard the
woman calling for help , but when they got there , her room was engulfed in fire.
The Lagos Police Public Relations
Officer , CSP Chike Oti, said the fire started around 2 am.
According to him, “the estate fire service and the state fire service worked together to put out the inferno. The corpse was later deposited in a Lagos State general hospital morgue. Investigation is ongoing into the actual cause of the fire.”