by crossriverwatch admin
A family of six comprising husband , Felix Akpabio, wife Helen Oju Akpabio and their four kids Victor, (13) Joshua, (10) Delight (9) and Faith, (7) have perished in a midnight fire which razed their house in Anantigha, Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
The inferno which occurred at about 1am on Thursday was said to have been ignited when one of the boys, Joshua perceived the smell of gas which was leaking from the cooking gas cylinder and he promptly woke the mother and alerted her on the small.
However before the mother could do anything, he had struck a match stick and the flame ignited the fire and “before anybody could do anything, the fire had spread from the kitchen to the other rooms and engulfed every one of them in flames. Obal, half sister to Helen told our reporter.
Obal said her sister read Radiography and was a staff of the Accounts section of the General Hospital Calabar and a member of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry. “When the fire started, their cry for help attracted other residents of the neighborhood and they came out in numbers to rescue them before the arrival of the Fire Service”.
She said the husband is an Architect from Akwa Ibom State while her sister, Helen is from Assiga in Yakkur Local Government Area of Cross River State. “They completed that house not long ago and were living there happily before this ugly incident; I have cried and cried until my eye are aching me”.
According to her, the first son of the family, Victor was a student of Federal Government College in Uyo Akwa Ibom State and was in Calabar for the Easter holidays and got caught in the inferno.
The Cross River Police Command spokesman Hogan Bassey who confirmed the story called on members of the public to take caution against accidents at home.
follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch