Painful Story Of How Parents Lost Their 3-Year-Old Twins In Petrol Fire

A family in the Magboro area of Ogun State have been thrown in great sadness after 3-year-old twins, Taiye and Kehinde Oluwasegun, were burnt to death in an inferno that gutted their home on Tuesday.

The unfortunate incident happened around 8 p.m while the family was preparing to have dinner. It was also gathered that the first born of the family, Iyanu, had tripped over a jerrycan of fuel, which also spilled some of its content in the parlour.

According to Punch, while the mother mopped the spillage, the fuel was said to have flowed to a lantern in the house, which triggered an explosion.

Residents, who were alerted by calls for help, reportedly rescued Iyanu; the second child, Korede, 6; and their parents.

Speaking of how the incident happened, Korede, who sustained burns in the leg, narrated:

”My daddy has two generators. We use the big one to pump water, while the small one is for the house.

My daddy had put the small one in the room to pour petrol into it before taking it to the cage that was outside. My mummy was preparing food in the kitchen that time.

My sister, who didn’t know there was a jerrycan on the floor, tripped over it. My mum then took the mop to clean spilled petrol. She was doing that when the fire started. There were six of us in the house: my dad and mum, my sister, the twins and me.”

A motorcyclist in the area, who did not identify himself, said the survivors were helped by residents to cross the bridge.

”It was a difficult task getting the survivors to the hospital. We had to carry them on our backs with their burns. The woman kept asking for her twins, while the husband kept lamenting that he lost everything to the fire.”

It was also learnt that at Perfect Joy Hospital where three members of the family were taken to for treatment, the father of the deceased, Aina, suffered severe burns in his legs, hands, face and chest, while his wife, Abosede, a teacher, who had yet to be informed that the twins were dead, suffered burns in both legs.

A relative of the victims, Pastor Moses Igbinadolor, said Iyanu was in another hospital, adding that she sustained serious burns.

He lamented the lack of basic amenities in the community, saying it made the rescue difficult.

”We took Iyanu to another hospital and the doctor said she sustained 68 degrees burns. What, however, made the case worse was that we couldn’t get across to the fire service because there is no motorable road.

The nearest police station is at Ibafo. This just shows that we don’t have a listening government. No road, no power, no water,” he said.

Photo credit: Samson Folarin