Fire roasts two visiting kids to death in Kumba.

The tragedy is said to have struck following a fire incident in the night of Sunday, breaking Monday July 29. The incident happened in the Mbonge Road neighbourhood.

According to some inhabitants of Mbonge Road, the fire erupted from nowhere, razing a plank house in which the kids were. 

A woman who was in the house alongside one other child who survived the incident, said they tried in vain to pull those who died out of the fire but it was already too late.

The kids are said to have been burnt beyond recognition. Most inhabitants of Mbonge Road, who were already asleep as at the time of the fire incident, are said to have only succeeded in preventing it from spreading to other buildings.

Meanwhile, a neighour who said she would have suffered more loses if her kids had not gone for holidays, said it was her phone that kept her busy towards the time the fire sparked. 

The neighbour said she overheard someone shouting that fire had engulfed the house. In an attempt to limit the flames, the woman in question said she battled to remove her gas bottle but the fire had become too wild to control normally.

The charred remains of the kids were put inside bags and transported to Bekondo village in Mbonge Subdivision for interment. 

The woman with whom the kids had come to visit is said to have been accompanied to the burial by some residents of the Mbonge Road neighbourhood.

To note that the incident in Kumba comes weeks after fire, linked to illicit fuel, roasted seven members of the same family to death in a village in Awae, Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region.

By Cyprian Bekhali (Journalism student on internship)

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3185 of Wednesday July 31, 2024