Three children of the same parents have lost their lives in an early morning fire in Ado village, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State.
The incident which occurred on Saturday started at about 6.30 am and according to eye witnesses, the cause of the fire remains unknown.
Mr Cambric Ayet, who lost his property to the fire, said, “My wife was the first person who saw heavy smoke coming out of a neighbour’s room and started shouting, ‘Fire! Fire!’”
Ayet said, on hearing his wife’s voice, he went out to shout for help and to rescue his co-tenant, who unknown to him had gone out, leaving the children who were asleep in the room.
He added, “I noticed that the room was locked and l thought my neighbour was cooking and had locked the room and went out since there was no electricity throughout the night.
“It was when we were trying to break the door to get into to the room that we saw our neighbour (the mother of the children) coming toward the house.”
It was upon her arrival and screams “My Children! My Children!!” that everyone got to know that the three siblings were inside the house.
Mr Sunday Ugwa, the father of the children, gave their names as Chimobi, Chinonso and Destiny — three, five and eight years old.
He said he was confused when he got the news of the incident through a neighbour.
Ugwa said, “My wife explained that she went to buy a recharge card and she was not cooking before she went out. What then could be the source of the fire?
“My wife does not cook inside. Our kitchen is outside; we don’t use gas to cook because of the children. How did such a fire come about?” he asked.
The children’s corpses were taken away for burial in a police van.