6 escape death by fire, as landlord’s okada explodes

A family of six, including a one-week-old baby, escaped death by the whiskers after their building in Okokomaiko area of Lagos went up in flames at the early hours of Tuesday. The fire was said to have been caused by an explosion from a motorbike that was parked inside the building. A woman, identified as Mrs Oyinkansola, who was preparing a meal, allegedly positioned her cooking stove and a kerosene lantern, otherwise known as atukpa, close to the motorcycle, leading to the explosion. It took the efforts of neighbours, who broke down the doors to the house for the trapped tenants to escape, with some of them rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, the landlord of the building and owner of the burnt motorbike, Mr. Ishola Lukman, blamed Oyinkansola for the fire incident, noting that she had been warned several times not to cook in the veranda. His words: “She purposely set my new bike on fire when she decided to put her lantern very close to it. If she had cooked by the side of her apartment the bike would not have burnt. I have been parking my bikes at that same spot for long. “This particular one is new and it is the third I have bought. The fire would have been massive, but for the decking and swift response of neighbours who came to our rescue.”