Mother, 6 daughters die in cooking gas fire

A suspected domestic cooking gas explosion has left a mother, Hauwa Bashir, and her six daughters dead in Katsina metropolis. The second wife, also called Hauwa, of the bereaved man, Bashir Sani, 37, however escaped death with her one-year old daughter.

The disaster struck at Raffuka Quarters around 8.30 pm on Tuesday, when the hurricane lamp left on a sofa in the living room of the two room apartment the family lived in was said to have fallen down near a gas cooker and a deep freezer in the living room and burst into flame.

The unfortunate children: Omi (13), Fati (11), Yasira (11), Nasiba (9), Atika (6) and Nafidasi (1) were said to have been trapped in the inferno caused by the gas explosion when the fire from the hurricane lamp spread to the gas cylinder.continue reading after the cut


A younger brother of the devastated father of the children, who identified himself as Abdullahi, told Daily Sun that the inferno prevented them from rescuing the victims who were crying for help.

Prior to the explosion, one of the victims, Yasira, who had earlier been affected by the carbon emission from the hurricane lamp, had to be rushed to the Katsina General Hospital by bdulllahi and the grandmother of the late girls.
Before they returned from the hospital, there had been an explosion and the rooms of the late Hauwa had gutted by fire and only the second wife who was living in an adjacent room escaped unhurt with her daughter.

Abdullahi added that Yasira, who died around 6a.m yesterday at the hospital, and the charred remains of the other victims were buried at the old Dantakum graveyard in the city yesterday morning according to Islamic rites.
His elder brother, who was surrounded by scores of relatives and sympathizers, at the time of filing this report, was still too shocked to comment on the incident.