A man, his wife and 3 kids burnt to death
By Mafanta Kromah on the scene
Five persons are reported dead on Thursday in a pre-dawn fire outbreak that burnt down a home in the Pagos Island community in the Monrovia suburb of Congo Town.
According to one of the surviving victims, the fire engulfed the house at around 3am local time on February 15, 2018.
Barbara Morris, whose brother Emmanuel died in the fire, said the fire gutted the building as occupants were sound at sleep.
Barbara explained that her brother, Emmanuel Morris started yelling “fire, fire in the room” but before help could come, everything was gone including their brother, his wife and their three kids.
The five persons that left in the incident were Emmanuel Morris, his woman Felicia Delma, and their three kids Leon, Morris and Leroy Morris.
Speaking with eyewitnesses on the scene, Kelvin Kpont a resident of the community noted that the zine round house has three bed rooms with 16 persons living in it but unfortunately five and the 11 survey with no injuries.
He said the incident happened at 3:am after the Emmanuel came from washing game around 1am, noting it was two hour after the incident occured and lead to the death of him and his family.
It is reported that the cause of the fire wa either electrical current or mosquitos card that was light up in the house but there is no fix statement as to what causes the outbreak as those who are to tell the story had all died.
At the same time, Comfort Gbapo another resident of the Island noted that Emmanuel, who was popularly called “Opong” was the only breadwinner for the 16 family members and that his death is a huge lost to the entire family.
She said he used to work for City Builder where he earned and feed his family including his mother, sisters and brothers.
The woman is appealing to the Liberian government and relief groups to come to the aid of the victims.
“They are very poor, the mother sell small small things in front the house and the son who died was their only source of income for the family. They are homeless and has lost everything in the incident therefore it will be good if the government intervene,” Ms. Gbapo.
She continued: “Humanitarians and government can come in to put a structure down for the victims and provide some clothes as they have lost everything they once had.”
Another eyewitness, Johnson identified as one of the brothers of the diseased, noted that he left his brother on Valentine’s Day and went on the beach but before leaving his brother in fun was saying to him how he loves bluffing with colors.
He said that night they all lecture and went to bed together until late midnight he heard a strength sound and was wondering the cause of the sound until he hear his sister screaming that there was fire in the house.
Visibly shaken, Johnson said he tried making way for him to get out of the house through the window but in the process he started saying, “I can see again ooh, I can see again ooh” and there he said he went to the room to try another way but was unable to rescue his brother and his family as the fire was very strong and the smoke couldn’t allow him see anything in the house. “If there was another person around me to help at that moment, my brother was not going to died in that fire incident,” he narrated.
In the same note, the mother of the disease, Rebecca Morris noted that she has nothing to live for as she has lost the only person that was taking care of her and the rest of her kids.
“I wanted to kill myself but in time, community members came in and give me courage to live for my other kids but how am I going to survey will them when not even a cloth or pin was safe from our home,” the mother started explaining in tears.
“They have gone to bury my son and his woman and my grandchildren and I will not see them again, I have lost whole five in a day,” the close relative of the victim added.
Meanwhile, fire authorities and the Liberia National Police are investigating to establish the actual cause of the deadly fire.