An early morning inferno, last Saturday in Ado village, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, has burnt three children of the same parents to death.
The incident, which razed a bungalow, reportedly threw residents of the area into mourning.
It was gathered that the fire started at about 6.30am but the cause of the fire could not be ascertained as of the time of this report.
However, an eyewitness, 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 the room that we saw our neighbour (the mother of the children) coming toward the house.
“As she saw people and the incident, she started shouting, ‘My children! My children!’ That was when we got to know that three children were inside the room.”
The father of the children, Mr Sunday Ugwa, 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.