A woman and her four children have died after a fire engulfed their home in Okochiri community, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Gatekeepers News reports that the incident reportedly occurred on Friday morning, trapping the family inside the house.
Residents said community youths mobilised to put out the fire but were unable to rescue the victims, who were burnt beyond recognition.
Some community sources alleged that petrol may have triggered the fire following a spark, although the cause of the incident had yet to be independently established as of the time of filing this report.
Igwe Godswill, commander of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Okrika, described the incident as “painful”, saying authorities were still gathering information on what happened.
“We just heard the news this morning about the fire,” he told TheCable in a telephone interview.
“There are no proper details yet as to what actually happened, but when we got there, we saw that about four children and their mother, making a total of five persons, had been burnt and died.”
Godswill said the police arrived at the scene before the community security operatives, adding that the fire had already been extinguished by the time his team arrived.
“The police had already arrived and taken proper details of what happened,” he said.
“When we got there this morning, the fire had already been put out and the police had already come to the scene.
“I believe a proper investigation will be carried out to determine exactly what happened.”
Residents described the incident as heartbreaking and called for an investigation to establish the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The Rivers State Police Command had yet to issue an official statement on the incident as of the time of filing this report.
