by Oge Okonkwo

A fire outbreak in Rafin Zurfi area of Bauchi state has caused the death of a one month old baby.

According to reports, the baby girl identified as Mirabel was left by her mother in custody of the baby’s maternal aunt in Arewa house.

The infant was burnt to death in the fire which started when a candle was knocked off and ignited a pillow which it fell on, engulfing the room.

Reports say:

Edmond Chukwu a trader and his wife went to church that fateful day leaving the infant and three of their children in the care of one Suzan, a relative.

In his own account of the incident, Edmond, a father of six, said that at the time of rescuing the children, the neighbours did not know the baby was in the room sleeping.

The fire started at about 7: 45 pm on Monday in Edmond’s apartment where three little children were playing with a candle.

According to a tenant, the children were playing with a candle and one of them bumped into it without realising the damage.

The witness said , “unknown to Suzan who was outside cooking, the candle became an object for the kids to play with. She called out to one of them and he left the younger ones inside not knowing that he had knocked down the candle from its stand unto the pillow. This resulted to the fire incident that consumed the whole building.”

According to a neighbour, Aminu Micah, Edmond’s children were rescued, but nobody told the team of rescuers that there was a baby in the room.

“It was a painful to discover that a baby was burnt to death in the room. The baby could have been saved. I brought out two children alive and one woman assisted me to bring the third child out, but I did not know there was a baby inside”

Edmond said the baby Mirabel was brought to his wife by her sister who he said went to get travelled in search of job.

“She has been crying since the incident. It is sad”

Efforts to get the parents of Mirabel to talk failed as the father of the dead baby refused to comment on telephone. He said his wife was too traumatised by the death of their baby and would not want to talk.

However, a tenant who pleaded anonymity said Mirable’s mother was negligent.

“How could a mother leave a one month old baby to another woman? To me it is gross negligence and she needs to be arrested. There is a lot of information we are not getting on this whole drama yet. We even understand that she left the baby with her sister and travelled to look for a job. So there is something fishy”

According to a tenant, Susan opened the door and saw that half of the room was already engulfed with fire with her siblings trapped inside the room.

She raised an alarm that brought the neighbours running with buckets of water and sand in other to put out the fire but the fire spread to other rooms.