Nofisat Jamiu, a Lagos-based fashion designer, has shared the heartbreaking story of how a cooking gas explosion at her mother’s workplace claimed the lives of four of her family members.
She listed the victims as her one-year-and-three-month-old daughter, her mother, sister, and father, who had only stopped by his wife’s shop minutes before the tragic incident.
Fighting back tears, the 27-year-old mother of two narrated how the explosion, which occurred at her mother’s gas retail shop in the Apapa area of Lagos, upended her life and left her in what she described as “perpetual grief”.
Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise, Jamiu said her mother, Medinat Jimoh, had been in the gas retail business for only six months before the incident.
She revealed that the explosion was caused by a faulty and old gas cylinder.
“My mother started selling gas about six months ago. It wasn’t even her business. She worked for someone and only got paid at the end of the month,” she said.
“Before then, she was doing laundry from house to house and selling small items just to make ends meet. My father was an artist, but he suffered a stroke in 2023, and since then, life has been very hard for us. My mother became the breadwinner and was struggling to keep us going.”
Jamiu explained that the day of the incident started like any other.
Her father, Tajudeen Jamiu, had gone to visit her mother at the shop, as he often did, while Hazimat, her daughter, also wandered into the shop to play.
“My sister, a hairdresser, was resting inside while waiting for a client. All of them were inside when the explosion happened. My brother, who survived, told me that one of the cylinders fell and split open near its base. The 50kg cylinder was too old and rusty, which made it unstable.
“Immediately it fell, it began to leak. My mother tried to stop the leakage with her hands before figuring out what else to do. Unfortunately, the gas exploded minutes later. Everything happened so fast, and the whole place was engulfed in flames,” she recalled.
She said the victims were initially rushed to Bola Ahmed Tinubu General Hospital, Apapa, where they received first aid.
However, due to the severity of their burns, they were referred to the Burn and Trauma Centre at Gbagada General Hospital.
While her parents were admitted to Gbagada, her daughter and sister were referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, due to a lack of bed space.
“At Gbagada and LASUTH, the doctors did their best and started treatment immediately, but only my younger brother, Teslim, survived. My parents, sister, and little daughter died within five days of admission,” she lamented.
Now the eldest in a family of five, Jamiu, who is married with two children, said she is struggling to care for her surviving siblings, especially as she has no steady job and is still mourning her loved ones.
“The pain is unbearable. It has stolen my joy and left me in pieces. My daughter was only one year and three months old. I still can’t believe she is gone. My husband has warned me never to return to the gas business because of how my mother died.
“I still sell gas at another location for the same woman my mother worked for, and some of the cylinders we use are quite old and rusted,” she added.
Jamiu called on the Lagos State Government, corporate organisations, and well-meaning Nigerians to come to her aid, saying she cannot bear the burden of caring for her younger siblings alone.
“I want the government and good-spirited Nigerians to please help me. My sibling is still young. I don’t have a job, and I’m left with this heavy burden. I don’t know where to start,” she pleaded.
