Generator fire kills 16-year-old student in Bauchi

A teenager sitting the ongoing West Afri­can Senior School Certificate Exami­nations (WASSCE) in Bau­chi State has died of burns after trying to start a power generator, which went up in flames.
Mubarak Aliyu Gidado, aged 16 years was rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ABTUTH), where he died two days later due to injuries he sustained from the incident.
His father, Aliyu Moham­med Gidado, said his son, an SSS III student of FOMWAN Model Secondary School, Bauchi, was trying to start the generator behind their house, when the accident occurred.
He said: “It was on Wednes­day (April 22) at about 7 p.m., after the evening prayer, when my son went to start the gen­erator.
“The generator suddenly went up in flames that con­sumed him. He ran out of the place but his body was burnt from head to toe.”
Gidado recounted that all efforts to save his son who was billed to write Mathemat­ics the next day failed.
“The doctors gave him a 50-50 chance but his condi­tion worsened and he was placed on life support ma­chine but his heart failed and he gave up,” Gidado said.
The bereaved father ex­pressed shock over the inci­dent because Mubarak had been putting on the generator for several years.
“As a father, you can’t quantify the grief of losing a child. It is God that gives and takes and we cannot ques­tion him. I thank God for Mubarak’s life. He was an obedient child. He wanted to study Computer Science but now he is no more.
“He was a good child. The Islamic School students and teachers came to my house to sympathise with me on learn­ing of his death. May his soul rest in peace,” he said.
Muktar Gidado, uncle of the late Mubarak, described his nephew as full of hopes.
“He was a very brilliant child. He memorised 40 chapters of the Quran and he had a Quran in his pocket that day. He was a determined boy, respectful and obedient.”
Speaking in the same vein, Lawal Yusuf, Head of Daar Communications office, in Bauchi and neighbour to the Gidado family at the Federal Low-cost Housing estate, said Mubarak’s death was most painful because the boy was focused in life.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi State police command has re­ported that there was a fire in­cident early yesterday morn­ing at Sunnah TV Station situated along Kobi Street, Bauchi.
The command’s Public Re­lations Officer (PRO), DSP Haruna Mohammed, said the scene was visited and cor­doned off by police patrol team attached to Township Division Bauchi to prevent looters from taking advantage of the incident