Tragedy struck in Akure, the Ondo State capital in the early hour of Christmas day when the Chief Medical Director of Universal Medical Clinic, Dr David Oguntuase was caught in an inferno that burnt down his hospital.
The inferno, which burnt down the hospital completely according to eye witnesses, started around 2 am and could not be put out until around 5 am in the morning.
This came barely a week after a gas explosion consumed 42 shops, cars and valuables worth millions of naira within the same town.
Eye witnesses said the fire incident may have been caused by a lit candle, which ignited the window blind near the area the doctor was sleeping and spread to other parts of the hospital before an oxygen cylinder, used for patients exploded which woke up the neighbours from their sleep.
One of the witnesses, who is a neighbour, said he heard distress call of the occupants of the burning building around 2.am and came out and saw that the hospital was on fire. He said while some of them were using water to put off the fire some of them ran to the fire brigade station for assistance.
However, he said those who returned from the fire station said the fire brigade could not come because there was no fuel in their vehicles.
According to him, there was no way they could rescue the doctor because of the intensity of the fire which was aided by the gas and oxygen explosion.
Another witness said Oguntuase, aged 52 had called his wife around 7.pm in evening of
the previous night that he was coming ‘home’ after the close of the day.
He also told his nurses and staff to go home and celebrate Christmas with their families since there was no patient again in the hospital. He said it was the doctor that was alone in the hospital when the incident started.
But his colleagues in the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) suspected foul play since the doctor should have left hospital when there was no patient in the hospital and had told his staff to close for the day.
T
hey also said the intensity of the fire that burnt down the whole building was so much for candle light saying it could be the handiwork of arsonists.
Meanwhile, the police have cordoned the area and arrested the staff who supposed to be on night duty.
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