Over 400 corpses have been burnt in a fire incident at the mortuary section of the General Hospital, Onitsha, Anambra State.
The fire, which lasted about three hours on Saturday, razed the mortuary building located behind the hospital facility.
The fire was said to have emanated from a burning bush behind the morgue.
PUNCH Metro gathered that when the fire started, mortuary attendants poured water mixed with detergent to douse the flame.
However, when the fire escalated, they called the state fire service.
When our correspondent visited the scene on Sunday, it was a gory sight, as families who deposited corpses in the mortuary lamented the situation.
Some, who had come to carry their corpses for burial, burst into tears when they saw that the mortuary was in ruins.
One of them, Charles Ozor, said, “We came to take the corpse of a community member for burial only for us to see that the corpses in the morgue had been burnt beyond recognition. We are confused; we don’t know what to do.”
An eyewitness, who did not want to be identified, recalled that someone had cleared the bush behind the morgue and set it on fire.
He said, “The bush is a bit far from the mortuary. But before we knew what was happening, we saw that the roof of the mortuary had caught fire. There were over 400 corpses inside the building. The entire place was engulfed in fire. Before firefighters came, the fire had caused a lot of damage; most of the corpses were burnt to ashes and some beyond recognition.
“The firefighters battled to stop the fire from escalating to other buildings. In fact, the water in their tank finished; they had to go and refill elsewhere because the hospital does not have a water facility on its premises.”
An auxiliary worker, who did not mention her name, told PUNCH Metro that the morgue had been contracted to a private operator.
