Father, son killed by generator fumes in Lagos

Tragedy struck again in Lagos State when a man and his son lost their lives after inhaling dangerous fumes emitted by their generating set while they slept in their apartment in the Iwaya, Yaba area of the state.

Guardian reports that the victims, Ayodele Megbuwawon and his son, Tobi, had switched on their generator at the lobby of their bungalow apartment, shut the doors and windows before going to sleep on the night of Monday, May 22, 2017.

According to an eyewitness, the duo was discovered the following morning by neighbours and while the son had died in the night, Megbuwawon passed on at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

 

According to a neighbour of the deceased identified as Segun, when residents noticed something was wrong as Megbuwawon and his son did not appear in the morning, he peeped through a hole in the door and saw Megbuwawon lying helpless on the floor.

Segun reportedly raised an alarm which brought other residents and they forced the door of the apartment open in order to save the victims.

The residents of the community described the late Megbuwawon as very peaceful and accommodating, noting that it was because of him the government had not chased them out of Iwaya.

A neighbour, Monday Okey, reported that the house smelled of fumes suspected to be Carbon Monoxide when they entered.

“I was in my room when Segun came and knocked. He said something was wrong with Ijaloba, that it is like he fell down. We looked through the door and saw him on the ground.

So, we quickly broke the window and entered inside. He was breathing slowly. We also ran to check on Tobi but his body was already stiffened.

We rushed him to LUTH and were asked to pay N250,000. They were attending to him when we left to look for the money.

We went round the community appealing to people for donations, which they did. But by the time we returned to the hospital with the money, he was dead.”

A cousin to the deceased, Evangelist Michael Megbuwawon who spoke with newsmen at their residence, said they were sad they locked themselves up and turned on the generating set.

“It is a sad news to us. We are not happy because we don’t understand how they would switch on the generating set inside and lock the doors.

 

We were called when the incident happened and that’s why we came here. We are from Ilaje in Ondo State but we stay at Ajegunle.

At the moment, we are more interested in his burial. Once the burial is done, we would meet at Ajegunle.”

This sad incident happened barely two days after three people died from inhaling toxic smokes from a generating set in Edo State.