Mrs. Maryam Mohammed left her house in Kakuri, a suburb of Kaduna South Local Government area to give birth to her sixth child through a Caesarean Section (CS). But a very devastating news awaits her. Three of her children, and that of her friend were consumed by a late night fire, which left the entire neighbourhood in mourning. The trouble, Weekly Trust heard from the neighbours, is how to convey the news to her.
Weekly Trust gathered that Maryam was on admission at the St Gerald's Hospital where she gave birth while the husband Aminu Mohammed was with her to see her condition and that of the the new born baby when the incident happened.
The fire burnt everything in the two-room apartment, including four of the children who were sleeping inside. Residents tried to force the door open as the children were screaming for help, but could not succeed because the door, made of steel, had melted from the heat of the fire.
Weekly Trust gathered that the fire which started around 11pm on Thursday, threw residents of the area into pandemonium as they ran from one house to the other looking for water to put out the raging inferno.
The fire claimed the lives of Sadiya, Ramatu and Mansir as well as that of Khalid, son of Maryam's friend.
A large crowd of sympathizers were helping out to salvage what was left of the family belongings.
Comments such as "it has finished for this family", "how can the woman cope with such a loss" and so on were heard from neighbours and symphatisers who gathered at the scene of the incident.
Maryam's sister, Aisha Kabiru, was trying to explain what happened to Weekly Trust but was overwhelmed by tears and could not go on.
However, another sister to Maryam Mohammed, Zainab Mohammed Garba confirmed that four of her sister's children died in the fire.
"They were five inside the house when the fire started. One of them was not my sister's child, he was her friend's son, Khalid. The only one who survived among my sisters children is five-year-old Abdulrahman, but Sadiya, 13, Ramatu, 7, and Mansir all died in the fire.
"My sister gave birth on Wednesday through Caesarian Section (CS) so the husband went to stay with her in the hospital that very night when the fire incident happened. I don't know what caused the fire, because people living in the area said there was no light at that time," she explained.
She noted that her sister is a civil servant working with the Igabi Local government secretariat.
A neighbour, Hannatu Terry, whose house was also affected by the fire, said she was woken up by the smoke emanating from the house around 11pm on Thursday night.
"I normally take sleeping pills when am going to sleep so that I can sleep well, because I am hypertensive. So on that fateful Thursday, like always, I took my pills and went to bed around 9.30pm.
"I was awoken from my bedroom by the smoke from the fire which engulfed my house; by the time I got to my sitting room; the whole place was on fire. At that time I did not know the fire was coming from my next door neighbour's house.
"I was confused and started shouting, that was when my two children who were in the house with me woke up and we all came out shouting, so as to alert other neighbors. People came out with buckets of water to help put out the fire," she said.
A crowd made up of mostly women who gathered at the entrance of the house told our correspondent that the mother of the children had not been told about what happened for fear that it will worsen her condition.
They described the family who hailed from Kogi state as peace loving, saying that they were always ready to extend a helping hand to their neighbours.
A Senior Secondary School student in the compound, who did not want her name in print told Weekly Trust that Sadiya, the oldest daughter of the family had gone to a nearby internet café to do her assignment for school.
"Sadiya went to a café to do her school assignment; I want to believe that maybe when she came back and there was not light, she lit a candle to transfer the homework into her book which caused the fire. But I am only suspecting, I am not sure.
"I was so devastated when I saw what their house had become; I even saw when Sadiya's body was taken outside before their bodies were taken to the St. Gerald's hospital. She was in SS1," she stated.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the St. Gerald's Hospital Kaduna Sunday John Ali confirmed that the hospital received corpses from the fire incident.
"Yes, the corpses of the children from the Kakuri fire incident were brought here and the only survivor is lying in a critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, he has 80-85 degree burns but he is responding to treatment," he said.
He noted that a large crowd of members of the community came around 12pm on Friday to collect the bodies so that they can be buried according to Islamic rights.
Now the dilemma of Maryam's relations and neighbours is how to break the bad news to her without putting her through agony.
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