Mystery Fire Guts Hospital, Burns Doctor To Death

                   Thursday was a black Christ­mas for residents of Oke Ibukun Street, off Araromi area in Akure, the Ondo state capital as a medical doctor, David Ade­tayo Oguntuase was burnt to death in his own private clinic.

Residents who con­firmed the news said the incident occurred around 12:30 when neighbors had already gone to bed.
Oguntuase died at his Universal Medical Clinic (Specialist Children Clin­ic) after the fire caught him unawares in his pri­vate office, inside the hos­pital. The body of the doctor was seen burnt be­yond recognition as rescu­ers who ran to the scene wept profusely and uncon­trollably.

Our correspondent learnt that no one could state the ex­act cause of the inferno at the clinic that resulted in the death of the doctor. He also learnt that the doctor was a ‘con­sultant pediatrician’ at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owo, another town in the state.

A nurse who pleaded anonymity said, “We can’t state what exactly caused the tragic incident because all of us had gone home when it occurred. All we can say was that the doc­tor came into the hospital and cracked jokes with us about the celebration of the Christmas. He later told us to go home for a happy celebration. We left him behind.”

“Before we the nurses left, he instructed us to lock all the windows and doors, which we did. We later left only him behind while the rest of us went home. We were even happy that the doctor released us and we would not have to come to duty on Christmas day. We never knew this would happen.”

Another nurse revealed that no patient was inside the clinic as at the time of the incident, “We had dis­charged all patients and everyone had gone home for Christmas. It was only the doctor that was left be­hind in the clinic.” She said.

Youths in the street who joined in rescue efforts described the incident as ‘pathetic’, while they took swipe on the officers of the Fire Brigade Service in the state for failing to show up at the scene to rescue the situation.

A resident in the street, Ajayi Olorunlogbon re­vealed how neighbors and sympathizers tried to res­cue the doctor.

“The incident occurred at midnight. I heard people shouting ‘Fire! Fire! Fire! I quickly called other resi­dents in the street to join in the rescue bid. We mo­bilised and looked for wa­ter to pour on the building to salvage the incident but all efforts proved negative as the gate leading to the clinic was already locked. We had to break the gate to get into the building to prevent the situation from spreading to other houses in the street