A Kaduna couple and six children have lost their lives to a fire that gutted the family’s residence in the Sabon gari area, Zaria, Kaduna State, Daily Trust reports.
According to the report by Daily Trust, the fire, which occurred around 2am on Thursday, engulfed the Kaduna couple and six children in their sleep.
The neighbour of the family, Mallam Junaidu Mohammed said, “though we could not ascertain the cause of the inferno, it started around 2am Thursday morning when everybody was asleep.”
He said the heat and the noise woke meighbours up as they tried their best to put out the fire with the help of other good Samaritans.
“But we could not rescue the family alive. All efforts to get the fire service to the scene were not successful. We didn’t see firefighters untill we buried the victims,” Mohammed added.
Elder brother of the head of the family, Adamu Mohammed, well known as Ado Kamfani, said, “Those who lost their lives in the inferno include his late brother, Mallam Rabi’u Mohammed and his wife, Fatima.
“Others were his six children, Rabiatu, Ibrahim, Abubakar, Hauwa’u, Hindatu and Baby Umar, who was about 34 days old.
“We actually could not identify the cause of the fire, but the whole house was completely burnt.”
Daily Trust gathered that all the belongings in the house were completely destroyed and the deceased had since been buried according to Islamic rite.
Effort to speak to the Head of Fire Service proved abortive as he was not the ground when our correspondent visited his office.
Officials at his office also declined to give our correspondent his mobile number, according to Daily Trust.