Families in complete shock and disbelief as fire consumes 400 corpses in mortuary

A fire outbreak that started from a nearby bush reportedly consumed over 400 corpses at the mortuary section of the General Hospital in Nigeria. 

The burning bush started right behind the morgue and lasted about three hours which eventually razed the mortuary building to ashes, including corpses stored in there at that moment.

The mortuary attendants were said to have called the state fire service after an attempt to douse the flame with water mixed with detergent failed.

According to PUNCH, some families who had come to carry their corpses for burial, burst into tears when they saw that the mortuary was in ruins and burnt corpses littering the vicinity.

One of them, Charles Ozor, said, “We came to take the corpse of a community member for burial only for us to see that the corpses in the morgue had been burnt beyond recognition. We are confused; we don’t know what to do.”

An eyewitness also provided his account saying;

“The bush is a bit far from the mortuary. But before we knew what was happening, we saw that the roof of the mortuary had caught fire. There were over 400 corpses inside the building.

The entire place was engulfed in fire. Before firefighters came, the fire had caused a lot of damage; most of the corpses were burnt to ashes and some beyond recognition.

“The firefighters battled to stop the fire from escalating to other buildings. In fact, the water in their tank finished; they had to go and refill elsewhere because the hospital does not have a water facility on its premises.”

An auxiliary worker, who did not mention her name, told PUNCH Metro that the morgue had been contracted to a private operator.

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