An administrator at Bethlehem Girls College, Abule Ado, Amuwo Odofin local government area of Lagos state, Henrietta Alokha, was among those who lost their lives during Sunday’s Lagos gas explosion.
According to various social media reports, many students were trapped in the boarding school, owned by the Catholic Church, during the fire outbreak that followed the explosion.
The administrator died while trying to rescue the students trapped by the explosion, various eye witness accounts confirmed.
One of the said, ”A mass celebration was ongoing in the school when the incident happened and Alokha was reportedly among those who assisted trapped students to escape from the scene but when it was time for her to leave, she could not make it out alive”.
“She died trying to save the lives of those students,” another resident at the scene of the explosion said.
“The explosion happened at about 8 am and the next thing we saw was that some parts of Bethlehem school had collapsed, and people started running.”
“We called fire service and at first they couldn’t locate where the incident happened. Then another bystander volunteered his phone to call them, and when they eventually arrive but with a small truck. They soon found out they needed more firepower to put out the fire and they called for backup,” he added.
The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) put the death toll at 18 as of Sunday evening.
According to NAN, at least 60 students who were rescued were taken to the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital at nearby Satellite town, for treatment.
With agency report.
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