The mortuary section of General Hospital Onitsha, Anambra state, was engulfed by fire which burnt over 400 corpses beyond recognition.

The fire incident which occured on Saturday, January 22, was said to have resulted from a bush located behind the morgue.

Mortuary attendants were said to poured water in a bid to quench the fire, but their effort proved futile which made them to call the state fire service.

Charles Ozor, one of those who came to pick the corpse of their loved ones lamented to PUNCH on Sunday, saying;

“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.”

Recalling the incident, an eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity said;

“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 fire fighters came, the fire had caused a lot of damage; most of the corpses were burnt to ashes and some beyond recognition.

“The fire fighters 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.

The operator of the morgue, who identified himself simply as Emma, said, “I had gone to Awka to bring some corpses. While I was there, I was informed about the fire on the phone and I rushed down immediately. Before I arrived here, the fire had done a lot of damage.

“The fire burnt both fresh and abandoned corpses packed inside the morgue. The chemicals we used in preserving the corpses must have aggravated the fire. The chemicals are highly inflammable and they burn faster than fuel.”

The Director of the Anambra State Fire Service, Mr Martin Agbili,  reacting to the fire incident said;

“We received a distress call from the General Hospital, Onitsha, and we deployed our men and the fire fighters’ equipment to put out the fire.

“We found out that the fire came through the bush and we have been telling people to ensure that they cut the bushes around their houses and avoid bush burning because this harmattan period, fire can come from anywhere, even from a far distance, because every surface is dry and inflammable.”

He noted that though there was no loss of lives, those who tried to put out the fire sustained varying degrees of burns.

Burnt corpses still littered the vicinity of the morgue as of the time of filing the report.