Electrocution on the streets of Lagos

        Pregnant woman, her daughter, 3 others die of electrocution

It was a sad day yesterday April 10th for residents of Onabanjo street in Oworonsoki, Lagos, as some of their neighbors including a pregnant woman simply identified as Mrs Ameh and her daughter were electrocuted by a live wire.

According to a Punch report, a heavy downpour in the early hours of yesterday morning resulted in the collapse of an electric pole that still had electricity running in it. The pole and its cables fell in front of a building on the street resulting in massive fire which was sparked by stored fuel inside one of the cars parked in front of the building. As the fire began to spread, residents of the building started running out of their house to save themselves from the fire, only to step on electric cables still running with electricity. 5 people, including 3 children were electrocuted, while two cars were burnt.
A neighbour and eye-witness tells Punch exactly how it happened. 

"Around 2am, I was by the balcony of my house when I saw a wire spark. The wire then fell on some wood and caught fire. The fire spread to the tyre of a Toyota car. The Toyota car had some jerry cans of petrol inside it and when the fire got to it, the vehicle exploded in front of house number six.

"Some of the occupants of the house, who were trying to run for their lives, passed the back of the house and came out through the front of house number eight.”

They mistakenly stepped on parts of the wire and were electrocuted.

“The pregnant woman (Mrs Ameh) and her daughter were electrocuted by the wire. However, I quickly pulled away Jonathan, their son, and he survived.

“Three other residents, Basheet, Iya Fatimah and her daughter were also electrocuted.”

About an hour later, electricity officials disconnected power from the affected lines.