Video: This why we haven't updated this blog in 2 weeks

It's quite sad that in 2016, a preventable disaster occurred where my family and I lost all belongings to a mysterious fire.

If you have the time, read the story. We hope this gets to the right authorities.

My name is Funmilayo Ishola, a journalist who manages this blog. Here's my story on the fire.

WHAT CAUSED THE FIRE THOUGH?

That was the same question I asked the firemen when we noticed they were about to leave without saying anything to us. It could have been that they were upset about the fact that one of them got hurt it the process of putting out the inferno.

I approached one of their leaders anyway. He told me that the fire must have been caused by either someone smoking, (I find that hard to believe, that such a fire would have been caused by smoking even though no one was smoking in our house as we had all been sleeping), he also said it could have been caused by gas (we had disconnected the gas because we were tiling the kitchen downstairs).

After telling him that it couldn’t be from us, he asked why I was ‘worrying’ myself, since the other party wasn’t asking for the cause of the fire. He also said that since I told him that I saw the fire in my mum’s balcony, it must have been from our end and that ‘you people should keep this within yourselves, if you get what I mean’.

When I insisted on an investigation, he walked away to the already leaving fire truck after telling one of his boys to give my sister who had just arrived at the scene at the time, his number.

Our neighbour also wasn’t so concerned with the cause of the fire. In his words, ‘It has happened, it has happened; after all, we lost more in the fire’. Really? I didn’t realise we were in a competition to see whose house burnt the most! He also mentioned that what was more important was the smashed truck window belonging to the Lagos State Fire Service.

That brings us to the issue of the FESTAC Town Fire Service. It is ridiculous that such a big community has no existent Fire Service. Politicians are busy playing ‘Ludo’ with people’s lives. The story is that the Federal government refused to give the State Government space within FESTAC because it is ‘a federal land’. The same ‘federal land’ which houses the FESTAC Fire Service is currently being used by people who have nothing much to do but hang around, gist and drink.

A lawyer friend advised that we petition the Fire Service because if they had come early, the fire wouldn’t have been so bad; still thinking about it.

I'm sharing this in thanksgiving and with the hope that it will help to cause ‪#‎Change‬ in our dear country where basic infrastructure is accessible to all.

How It All Began

Monday, 04/04/2016. At home. I had slept off after making a mental note to call the hairdresser who I was expecting for home service later in the day. I would be at work usually at this time but I am on sabbatical at the moment.

Circa 3.30pm. My 14-year-old niece, Erica, who would usually lock herself up in her room, slept on my bed that afternoon and it was her voice that woke me up. “Aunty Funmi, some people are shouting outside,” she said. We live on a close, so noise is not a regular occurrence.

Frowning, I said, “Let’s go and see who is shouting”. With the sleepwear only and without footwear, I went past my room to the living room and then to the balcony (this is the first balcony on the side of the house). On looking down from the balcony, people had gathered at our gate which was on my right.

I saw my aunt, Auntie Grace, who had just been discharged from the hospital that day. She has been with us for about three months because of her health; she was downstairs with a young man who I had never seen before. She looked confused. I still wasn’t sure what was going on but the next thing I heard was, “come downstairs, your house is on fire!”

I later found out that my aunt’s voice was one of those that Erica had heard in her sleep. She said Auntie Grace was shouting “come down, come down”. People had even helped to carry Auntie downstairs and according to her, she thought she was the only one left inside.

Now, I was a bit confused. I was later told that I wanted to jump from the balcony, LOL. I don’t remember that part. Then that same angel of a young man (who happens to be a neighbour I was meeting for the first time, it was he who first saw the fire while driving past and alerted people) said “find your way downstairs”.

He later told me that he had told me to bring out valuables on the way down. Again, I didn’t hear that part.

Since the unknown man (who I forgot to ask his name) said find your way down, I turned back towards the stairs and passed by my mum’s door on my left. The door was closed but not locked. I still didn’t see the fire, so it seemed like something small.

I didn’t remember to take anything. Not even my phone which was by my bedside. We ran out from the balcony barefooted, Erica and I. We still don’t remember who got out first. LOL.

Thankfully, I saw everyone outside. We were asleep; all five of us, Auntie Grace, my younger brother, Kola, Erica, Grace’s daughter Joy, and I.

On getting downstairs and outside, then I saw the fire, it was at my mum’s balcony at this time (the second balcony in the house). Our house is a semi-detached duplex and where we saw the fire was the point where both houses are joined.

It was only visible to those passing on the close and in my mind, I said this fire would soon be put out. My brother, Kola was one of those trying to quench the fire with water. We had about 30 cartons of bottled water downstairs, two dispenser jars and 10 packs of sachet water at home and bought another like 20 packs. Simultaneously, they were fetching water from the tap in our house and other houses around.

The fire refused to abate. The more water they threw at it, the more it raged. That’s when I began to worry and cry. We hadn’t taken out any valuables from the house. We then called the other occupants of the house; my mum and sister. They later arrived in tears.

Within 10 minutes, the fire was in the roof and one could now also see it coming out of the roof of the second semi-detached duplex. The fire continued to rage.

“Who has details of the Fire Service?” I desperately asked the onlookers who gathered in front of our house, and on the close; they were in their hundreds. Most of the responses I got were “We don’t have their details”. They were either simply looking or talking about what they thought caused the fire or recording the event. I later heard various versions of how the Federal Fire Service in FESTAC said they didn’t have water in their truck and that they asked the people who came to ask for their service, how much they brought. When they were told they didn’t bring any cash, the Federal Fire Service reportedly told them to tell the people who set them that they wouldn’t come. How nice.

Then came a water tank, the type that sells water. The pressure wasn’t enough to help the fire. It was at this point that I knew that there was more to this fire. There was something seriously burning.

Some moments later, there was an explosion from the other house, which was closer to the main road. The blast was like something out of a movie; there was this big ball of fire that came out of the building into the tree on the avenue. Many people ran off at this point. By the way, there is a Forte Oil petrol station about a mile away, so the area was cordoned off by some people who sold black market fuel on the street. Thick black smoke filled everywhere. It was such a sight to behold.

Now you can only speak for yourself in situations like this. We live in a duplex and have our own kitchen downstairs. The other semi-detached house has a dry-cleaning service downstairs and a church hall as the boys’ quarters. I don’t know how they live in their own house but during the fire, there was a gas explosion from what seemed like a kitchen upstairs.

One more thing to be thankful for, is the fact that we hadn’t been cooking, (it may have been harder to get out because the kitchen on the lower floor is directly under my room), the kitchen is located downstairs and our gas cooker had been disconnected because we were tiling the kitchen, the living room downstairs and the staircase.

We heard from a policewoman when we went to write a statement, that we had been using our generator to do the tiles. I am yet to hear of any tiler who uses generator to tile floors. We weren’t drilling anything and we couldn’t even cook on that day because of the ongoing work in the kitchen; everyone got takeaway for breakfast.

Amazingly, there was no power surge either, so where did this fire come from?

I couldn't bear to watch the sight of our house burning, so I went to the next close. My mum had just arrived from work after we called her home. We were trying to calm her down.

About 2 hours or so after the fire started, we heard the sound of a fire truck, it was from the Lagos State Fire Service. There was a fight when they were about to enter the close. Someone smashed the widow of the truck because they said the fire truck came too late. The smashed widow hit one of the firemen in the forehead and he had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.

Eventually, the Fire Service put off the fire which had already razed the two houses, majorly upstairs. 

We later noticed that those who claimed they were helping to put out the fire were actually looting. My mattress was thrown down from the balcony (the third one at the back of the house); even though my room was totally burnt, the mattress was untouched. This means that Samsung Galaxy S6 Egde and Samsung Tab S on my bed were stolen. My laptop together with many other things, were looted.

My sister’s laptop pack where she had kept the laptop was intact, yet the laptop was missing alongside her professional Canon cameras and ma on my many pricey lenses. We lost too many things that we can’t even begin to mention. From birth certificates, to University documents, other important docs, to clothes, underclothes, shoes, bags, accessories, cosmetics, perfumes, many things we had for sale, etcetera.

I asked one of the firemen about the gadgets and he said that he met the mattress already downstairs and that they wouldn’t have taken anything from the house. In fact, he said that the main reason their window was smashed, was because the looters knew that they wouldn’t be able to function with the presence of the firemen.

But we thank God!!! All five of us who had been sleeping, came out alive with our dear lives intact! What if my brother wasn’t home? What if I was at work? What if my niece did not sleep in my room? What if we were not tiling the floor on that day? We may have locked the entrance and it may have been harder to get out to the burning building. What if the fire started in the middle of the night? Very few people would have been willing to come out. We are grateful to be alive to tell the story and grateful for all the support so far!

Yes it hurts so bad. We are all displaced and trying to settle. I cry almost daily but in faith. We have the faith that things will definitely be restored in multiple folds. It won’t be long!!

That day, the 4th of April, was my first time of hearing the Yourba adage that says, Ile oba t’o jo na, ewa lo bu si (The king’s house which got burnt will be more beautiful afterwards). I have replayed it several times in my head!

The building has to be broken down because of the cracked walls according to the Structural Engineers. We are not sure yet how long it would take because the Federal Housing Authority is yet to give approval for demolishing and rebuilding.