Seven-Year-Old Dies In Fire At Agege

A 7-year-old boy was burnt to death in a fire that ravaged a two-storey building at the Lagos State Property Development Corporation Housing Estate, popularly called the Ijaiye Low Cost Housing Estate, Agege Local Government, Lagos.

According to a Vanguard report, the deceased, identified simply as Sulaimon, was said to be sleeping along with five other members of the family at block 68, flat 5/6, of the housing estate, when the fire started.

The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, but eyewitness said that it started at about 2:20 a.m, from the apartment where the deceased was sleeping before spreading to other flats.

Sources said effort by the deceased, who came to spend the holiday with the occupants of the flat, to escape with others proved abortive, as the house was already engulfed before he woke up.

Vanguard learnt that the family, while trying to escape from the building sustained varying degrees of injury and have been admitted at the Blue Cross hospital, Ogba, Ikeja.

The Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe confirmed the incident, saying that was one of the distress calls they received and attended to in the state at the weekend.

Fadipe explained; “We received the distress call at about 2:20 am. And immediately the fire truck in Agege was dispersed to the scene to put out the fire.
“When we arrived at the scene, we realised that the occupants of the building were sleeping when the fire started. At this time, they were trapped. We had to break the wall to rescue them.
“We were able to rescue the family of five from the building but one of them was already dead. A boy of about seven years.