By Kamsi Anayo
A mentally deranged lady has reportedly set a two-storey building on fire, in Enugu.
Attempts to forcibly move the 39-year-old lady to the psychiatrist hospital met stiff resistance as she violently used fuel to set the building ablaze.
Though, no life was lost in the inferno, the incident, which happened at Bigard Seminary Avenue by Hassan Lane Uwani, Enugu, destroyed properties worth millions of naira.
The incident also left residents scampering for safety.
Our correspondent, who visited the scene of the incident, observed that the fire affected the last floor of the building and would have spread to the entire house and adjoining buildings, if not for the alarm raised by the residents, leading to the arrival of men of the State Fire Service who brought the situation under control.
The lady, whose mental breakdown was said to have started since 2017, was said to have run berserk when her parents attempted to send her to a psychiatric hospital in Enugu.
It was gathered that the lady who lived with her parents at the last floor of the two-storey building, became problematic lately, a development that forced her parents to invite policemen to help take her to hospital.
According to one of the tenants, trouble started when the parents invited some policemen to help bring the lady down from their flat to psychiatric hospital.
“But when the policemen came early this morning, and the lady noticed that she was about being taken away, she took the gallon containing fuel and poured the content everywhere.
“When the policemen climbed up the building, the lady lighted up the place. Her parents, who were coming up with the policemen and the cops themselves all ran for their lives.
“Her mother’s shout of ‘fire’helped us to know that something was wrong. But, the men of the Enugu State Fire Service rushed here and put out the fire that already consumed the two flats up.
“The fire men were able to save the entire building from burning completely”, a neighbour said.
The State Chief Fire Officer, Enugu State Fire and Emergency Service, Engr. Okwudili Ohaa, who confirmed the incident, said fire fighters fought gallantly to quench the fire when they got to the scene.
He said they succeeded in quenching the fire with three fire engines because they encountered no serious difficulty in accessing the place.
He said: “At about some minutes past 6am today, Thursday, 10-11-2022, we received a distress call of fire outbreak in a two-storey residential building, at Bigard, Zik Avenue, Uwani.
“We deployed two three trucks and firefighters to the fire scene. The fire was fought, controlled and extinguished with the assistance of the public who were at the scene before our arrival.
“Although the fire affected the last floor of the building, a lot were saved within and around the burning building.
“The fire affected the other flat because it was caused by petrol.
“They said it was a mentally deranged lady who started the fire”.
As of the time of filing this report, the lady who was later rescued from the burning fire, was said to have been taken to the Enugu Neuropsychiatric Hospital.