Juliana Olajide, a journalist with the University of Jos Ice FM in Plateau State, lost her 17-year-old daughter and grandson in a fire that destroyed the family’s apartment.
The cause of the fire was still to be determined, although the family feared an electrical surge.
Mrs Olajide and her husband suffered burns while attempting to save their children from the fire.
“All I could remember was that I was forced to wake up at a quarter to 12 midnight to realize that the whole apartment was covered with thick smoke.
“I rushed out to my children’s room but I could not access their room because our sitting room was already engulfed in flames. I ran to my husband’s room. My husband had to walk through the fire to alert neighbours to help us. We had to break louvers to access our children to rescue them from the fire,” Mrs Olajide, who was revived at JUTH, told our correspondent.
Daily Trust learnt that it was neighbours who came to the family’s rescue and rushed them to the hospital.
“I lost my 17-year-old daughter and my two year-old grandson, my husband is in another ward battling with his life also,” she added.
It was learnt that the twins of the family, Rhema and Isreal were responding to treatment at the hospital.
When Daily Trust visited Ward 7, the husband, Isaac Olajide, who sustained burns on his face and hands, could hardly talk.
Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Plateau State chapter, who led her members to the hospital, appealed to individuals, governments and corporate organisations to come to the aid of the family to recover from the accident.
“They have lost everything including the house and all they had laboured for in life, they need to be assisted morally, spiritually and financially to enable the recovery from this disaster,” she said.
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