Boy, 4, sister, 6, perished in fire
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Boy, 4, sister, 6, perished in fire
PORT MORESBY: A four-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister were
trapped in a house fire and burnt to death in Port Moresby’s Boroko on Friday
afternoon.
Eight families were made homeless by the 2.30pm fire
that gutted the National Broadcasting Corporation flats on Tanatana Street.
Details of the news bread were published by The National:
Siblings die in fire
August 30, 2021The
NationalMain Stories
By PETER ESILA
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy and his six-year-old sister
were trapped in a house fire and burnt to death in Port Moresby’s Boroko on
Friday afternoon.
Eight families were made home-less by the 2.30pm fire that gutted the National
Broadcasting Corporation flats on Tanatana Street.
Unit 2 resident Wesley Mangula said it took just a minute for the fire to
spread.
“It was a very old house, I live above it. I smelt a strong ‘iron smell’, all
my possession is gone.
“The only thing I managed to save was my laptop, because when I turned on my
laptop, people were shouting fire.
“I rushed out and saw smoke billowing. When I returned to my room, the unit was
full of smoke,” .
Chief Fire Officer Bill Roo said on Saturday that the cause of the fire was
being investigated.
“The Boroko Fire Station received a distress call at about 2.30pm and the
Waigani station also responded. The fire started in a ground floor unit and
spread quickly to unit 2 upstairs, trapping the two young siblings. Their
mother is the key witness, but we have to respect her and her family who are in
mourning,” Roo said.
“At an appropriate time, we will interview her as part of our investigations
into the cause of the fire.”
Roo said firemen arrived with flames already licking the interiors in unit 2
where the siblings were trapped.
“We could not do anything to salvage the ground floor unit,” he said.
“Firemen and police forensics retrieved the charred remains of the siblings at
about 6.30pm.
“The remains were sent to Port Moresby Hospital by St John Ambulance.”
NBC managing director Kora Nou said two units were gutted and the others were
damaged by water used to fight the fire.
“It is very unfortunate and sad that two young lives were lost in the fire. Our
condolences and prayers to the family of NBC officer Sonny Karubaba,” Nou said.
“NBC’s immediate concern and care is for the eight families affected and we
provided K5,000 to all of them to keep them going for the weekend. We will
assess the situation this week.”
He said NBC was liaising with Karubaba and his family on the funeral
arrangements.
“NBC will meet all funeral expenses, including taking the remains of the two
siblings to their final resting place later this week,” he said.
“We will ask the affected families to temporarily move in with other NBC staff
or relatives in NCD.
“We have also started the process of building new accommodation for the
affected staff on existing NBC land.
“We have sourced quotations for prefabricated houses and will start clearing
land this week.
“We intend to relocate them as soon as possible.”
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