Hotel manager dies after accidental fire

PHOTO: RT.com

A forty-year-old hotel manager in Jos has died after a fire accident that occurred while he was refilling a generating set.The incident happened at about 4.30p.m. after a power outage in Mandela Guest Inn, located at Doherthy Street, Jos, where he was working in the hotel.Eddy Agbo was reported to have jumped into a well to save his life after he was consumed by fire.

An eyewitness at the scene of the incident, Moses Johnson, said he was taking some drinks at the bar when the light went off, and the manager promptly rushed to scoop fuel from where it was kept in a bathroom, to fix the generating set.He said after a while, he heard someone screaming for help, which forced him to go and see what was happening.

“But alas! I saw the manager crying and running, shouting for help. He was engulfed completely by fire,” he added. He said he was confused as he did not know what to do at that time because there was no water within the vicinity.“Water vendors were at the well outside the compound when Agbo was asked if he could dive into the well and hold a rope which they provided so that they could pull him out after the well water must have doused the fire. The request he quickly accepted.

With the strong rope tied around him, he jumped into the well after which he was pulled out alive and was immediately rushed to Our Ladies of Apostles (OLA) Hospital in Jos.He was later referred to Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jankwanu, Jos, where he was also rejected for lack of space at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), another witness said.

But since no other hospital could admit him, Agbo was later taken back to Bingham University Teaching Hospital where he later died.The wife of the victim, Mrs. Esther Agbo, who works as a nurse at OLA Hospital where her husband was first taken to, did not know her husband was brought to the hospital.

“I was on a night shift as a nurse when he was brought in. The nurses at the Out Patient Department did not know that the victim was my husband. They would have drawn my attention if they knew.”

She said missed several calls to her phone throughout the night because she was on duty.“Little did I know that my husband was battling between life and death that night, even to the point that he was brought to where I work and was referred to other hospitals without my knowledge,” she said.