Mirian Gom 
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria — A mother and her four children have died after a fire engulfed their home in Okochiri community, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, in the early hours of Friday.
Community youths reportedly put out the fire before the police arrived at the scene.
The cause of the fire remained unclear as of the time of filing this report, although community sources suggested that petrol may have been ignited by a spark.
The claim had not been independently verified.
Senior Commander of the Civilian Joint Task Force in Okrika, Igwe Godswill, confirmed the deaths in a telephone interview with Channels Television, saying details surrounding the incident remained sketchy.
“We just heard the news this morning about the fire. There are no proper details about what happened, but when we got there this morning, we saw that about four children had been burnt to death and the wife — a total of five persons,” Godswill said.
“But the police had already arrived and taken proper details of what happened. It is so disheartening that this is happening again in our community.”
Godswill said the fire had already been extinguished by the time he and other community members arrived.
“When we got there this morning, the fire had been put out, and the police had already come to the scene. I believe a proper investigation will be carried out,” he added.
He said the incident was being handled by the police at the Okrika Police Station.
The Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Blessing Agabe, also confirmed the incident in a chat.
The deaths have prompted calls for a full investigation to establish how the fire started and the circumstances surrounding the fatalities.
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