Also, two unidentified dredgers got drowned in a 70-feet domestic well in Ojo Local Government, Lagos.
The deceased siblings identified as Imoleayo, Ismaila who is eight years old and Busayo Ganiyu, were said to have been sleeping when the fire started.
The cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, but sources said it started at about 9:30p.m., Friday, from the victims’ one-room apartment before spreading to other rooms.
According to reports, efforts by the sympathisers to put out the fire proved abortive, as it later spread to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church of Zion at 41, Ogunyemi Street, Sabo Ilaje, Ajangbadi, Iba LCDA.
Sources said that the mother of the three siblings, a petty trader, was still in shock over the death of her children.
Speaking to Vanguard, Adeyemi Ayinla, a friend to the late Ismaila, said that his friend would have been alive if the neighbours who raised the alarm saw the fire early enough.
According to him: “We couldn’t get water early. And when we called the emergency numbers: 767 and 112, there wasn’t any response. This I guess, was due to the network. Before we could get water to extinguish the fire, they had already died.”
A teacher in Sabo Oniba Primary School, Ajangbadi, Iba LCDA, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said that Ismaila was a primary three pupil.
He said: “I can’t believe that he (Ismaila) is dead. He was in school on Thursday, his mother also attended the Parents /Teachers Association, PTA, meeting in the school that day.”
Meantime, Vanguard gathered that the two men who died in a well were in their late 40′s.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that the younger dredger was the first to drown. Effort to rescue him by his colleague proved unsuccessful and he also drowned.
Confirming this, the Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe who spoke to our correspondent said that this was part of the four distress calls they received from Ojo yesterday.
Fadipe said; AThat was one of the four distressed calls that came in but they came late.
