A bungalow building belonging to Barr. Paul Ajibo of Ohatekwe Agalegu Ishieke Autonomous Community in Ebonyi local government area of the state has been razed down by fire which was said to have emanated from a nearby bush.
The victim, Barr Ajibo, narrated his ordeal to LEADERSHIP. He said the incident started at about 5 p.m., when they were all out for their businesses.
He lamented that the fire had claimed their life’s achievements within a twinkling of an eye, adding that they had transferred all their properties and personal effects from their new house to the old one for renovation when the unfortunate incident happened.
He noted that all his properties including his wig, books, clothing, mattresses, bags of rice, yams, first School Leaving Certificate, Senior Secondary School certificate and Community health Workers Certificate, all belonging to the wife, and a lot more were destroyed by the unfortunate inferno.
They appealed to the government, concerned agencies, and good-spirited individuals to come to their aid, saying the fire had left them with nothing and empty-handed.
“Most of the items destroyed by the fire are my books, which I started storing in the 1980s to date. My yams, rice that we stored, cooking utensils, a lot of them, bicycles and many more. In fact, everything I had, my wig and gown are all gone.
“I appealed to good-spirited individuals and governmental organizations should come to my aid. This present situation have completely paralyzed me. Am in a state of confusion and handicapped.”
Some of the eyewitnesses, Mrs. Blessing Gabriel and Mr. Moses Ogona, who ran to the scene before the arrival of the owner of the house said that they started seeing ashes falling at their compounds and began to wonder where the ashes were coming from only to discover it was from Barr. Ajibo’s compound.
Mrs. Gabriel said that when she observed that the house had been gutted by fire, she and other neighbors immediately raised the alarm, and people gathered to help in quenching the fire, which they later did.
“But before putting off the fire, the house and property had already been razed down, including their barn. I was actually at my house washing clothes. I noticed some drops of thick black ashes in the clothes I was washing.
“So I was like, where is this fire coming from? Lo and behold, when I looked up, I noticed that smoke was coming from my back. Immediately, I came out with two of my neighbours. Before we got here, we realized that almost the whole place had already been gutted by fire.
“Some of us were trying to drag out some of the items in the house while others were assisting in bringing out the food items stored but we couldn’t achieve much because of the intensity of the fire.
“We succeeded in fetching water from a nearby well and were able to quench it. We were able to get the one we were able to get,” she narrated.
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