By Francis Sadhere
A resident Pastor of Christ Apostolic Church, (CAC) Warri, yesterday lost his wife and four children in a tragic midnight inferno that gutted the mission house of the pastor and a section of the church building, throwing members of the church into mourning.
The resident pastor, Pastor John Kayoda, was said to be far away in Osun State where he was attending a pastors’ conference when the tragic incident that claimed his entire family occurred.
The incident took place at the Otumara Branch of Christ Apostolic Church, CAC close to Angle park along Airport road in Warri South Council Area of the state.
According to an eyewitness the fire started at about 12:15am Wednesday midnight from the mission house attached to the church building and burning all occupants in the house beyond recognition.
Our correspondent who visited the scene of the incident gathered that the pastor’s wife and the four children died before help could come, a situation that threw the entire city in the state of mourning.
The late pastor’s wife was learnt to be a middle age woman while the children were between 9-18 years old worshippers told newsmen. Three of the children were learnt to have died of the fire fumes. The mother of the children and the last child died while battling to find their way out of the two bedroom flat apartment.
An eyewitness, Bright December, told our correspondent that trouble started at about 12:13 when he heard people screaming for help and when they rushed out they discovered that the church mission house and the auditorium was on fire.
December said he suspects the fire emanated from faulty electrical connection which some male residents of the area had earlier traced to the church environment but could not found where the actual fault was late Wednesday night before the incident occurred two hours later.
The eyewitness said: “Yesterday as at about 11pm some men in the area were going around because they noticed that the light was fluctuating and they were looking for where the problem was coming from. They came around about three times but they couldn’t find where the problem was.
“As at about 12am (midnight) I heard the woman (pastor’s wife) screaming and calling for help. I heard her say ‘help’, help help. So, I and some neighbours came out. On reaching there I saw the girl which is the last daughter of the pastor very close to the louvers. She was banging the louvers seriously. When we came out there was only one rubber outside which we used to pour water. Later on I saw the woman struggling to open one of the doors. She was battling to open the wooden door at the centre while shouting for help.
“The other three children did not struggle at all because it was like their room was chucked with flumes. It is where they slept we saw their corpses. Later the fire fighters came and they battled to put off the fire at about 2am. Immediately the fire fighters came, some police officer came too. We were able to put off of the fire and we went inside to discover five of them were dead. Three of them were in the last room while the pastor’s wife and the little girl were in the other room.”
