Octogenarian narrates how she cheated death during fire outbreak

An octogenarian, Mama Esther Okelezo, has narrated how she cheated death during a fire outbreak in her house in Warri, Delta State.

She said she was asleep when a fire gutted her house, eight other rooms and a church building at Ale, off Market Road, Warri in the wee hours of Saturday, February 13.

The mother-of-four who was living alone in her house suffered first degree burns on her two arms and back.

She narrated her ordeal in Isoko language to a delegation of Warri South Local Government Area officials, who visited her at Word of Life Bible Church Clinic, Warri, on Tuesday, February 16.

The delegation on the visit comprised the Treasurer to the Local Government, Mr Ugborugbo Moses; an Assistant Director of Administration, Mr Geoffrey Anamali, the HOD Environment, Mrs Stella Mode and Mr Ebule Metsese, the Council’s Chief Information Officer.

They were at the scene of the inferno for on-the-spot assessment of the damage caused.

One of the victims, Goodluck Ukenye, whose wife was recently delivered of a baby, told the delegation that the fire started from Mama Okelezo’s room.

He said the octogenarian raised the alarm when she noticed the fire, alerting other neighbours in the process.

Ukenye added that the residents of nine families were affected while a church building was completely razed by the inferno.

Although the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, some residents of the area averred that if the fire service had responded early enough, some of the destroyed properties would have been salvaged.

Nigerian Tribune