BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
Fourteen-year-old female twin girls from Onunwankwo village in Umuhuali community, Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State have reportedly sustained 50 per cent burnt following a recent kerosene explosion.
Nkechinyere and Nkemjika, both Junior Secondary School 1 students of Amaezu Model Comprehensive Secondary School, Umuhuali reportedly got burnt following an explosion caused by a litre of adulterated kerosene.
The unsuspecting teenage girls got burnt while trying to light up their lantern recently in the kitchen.
It was gathered that they bought the unwholesome product from a road side vendor in their community.
Narrating their ordeal recently, one of the twin sisters said, “That evening, my sister, Nkechinyere, was cooking with firewood in our thatched roof kitchen when I came in with the kerosene that she asked me to buy. Still sitting beside her narrating how difficult it was for me to find where I bought the kerosene from that evening, she poured some quantity into our lantern.
“While trying to lit it with matches, I heard a loud sound. I didn’t understand what happened. All of a sudden, I saw myself and my sister in flames. Thanks to neighbours who assisted us to put out the fire and rushed us to an herbal home for treatment as our mother was not at home then.
“The fire affected my sister the most because she was closer to it.”
Their mother, Augustina Odom, said she was grateful to God for sparing the lives of her children. She appealed to government to assist her in moving her ailing daughters from the herbal home where they are currently receiving treatment to the Alex Ekweme Federal University Teaching Hospital in Abakaliki for better medical care.
The Commandant of the Ebonyi State Fire Service, Barnaba Otozi, during a telephone interview, advised residents of the state to be careful of where they buy kerosene in order to avert fire outbreak.
Otozi added that they should also ensure that all electric appliances are off while leaving their houses, adding that they should stop bush burning to curb fire disaster as the dry season sets in.
The state Commissioner for Internal Security, Stanly Okoro-Emegha, urged the police to fish out the sellers of the suspected adulterated kerosene in the community.
