Published 15th Feb, 2024

By Opeyemi Lawal

The losses incurred by residents of the ghetto area in Salem, Ikate Lekki, Lagos, which went up in flames on Sunday night, are becoming clearer.

A 22-year-old resident of the ghetto told FIJ that she lost everything she owned in the fire accident which also claimed some lives.

“On Sunday night, just some minutes to 11 pm, someone from outside began to shout, ‘There is fire on pako (wooden) house’. She was shouting and asking everyone to come outside,” she told FIJ.

“I stepped out to see that everywhere was burning. I thought it was something water could quench, but I soon realised it was beyond what we could handle.

“I immediately returned inside to pick up the only thing that came to mind: my school bag. It was all I could carry at the time.”

She said that most of her valuables, including her clothes and N300,000 cash, were lost in the fire as she couldn’t grab anything beyond her backpack.

“The room where the fire started was the fourth one from mine, so survival was the first thing on my mind as soon as I saw the flames. I had just two clothes in my backpack.”

“I also couldn’t run with anything else because the entire area was swampy and all exit points were blocked. We had to scale the fence to escape the vicinity.

“One of my roommates was not in the house when the fire started, so she couldn’t save anything that belonged to her.”

The resident, who is a hairstylist, stated that it was when she returned there the following morning that she realised her home was gone.

“That night, I only found somewhere to spend the night. It was when I returned in the morning that I saw that the fire had destroyed everything in the ghetto,” she said.

“I work as a hairstylist, but I can’t go to work because I have no clothes. I have just been sleeping around – just anywhere to keep my head for the night.

“I don’t even know where to go from here or whom to call. All that is left of what I call home is now rubble, soot and a large expanse of land.”

The fire in the ghetto area was started by a resident who left food on fire during the Nigeria-Côte d’Ivoire game in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final.

The resident, who has not been seen since the fire broke out, left his cooking unattended when he heard that Nigeria had scored a goal and got carried away by the euphoria of the match.

The gas cylinder he was using to cook was said to have collapsed, leading to the explosion that destroyed the entire area.

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