Generator ignites fire,killes teenager sitting for WASSCE

A 16-year-old final year pupil, Mubarak Gidado, sitting for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination in Bauchi State, has died of burns.

He was engulfed by fire when he tried to start a generator which went up in flames; he died two days later. It was gathered that Mubarak died at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, where he was taken to for medical treatment immediately the incident happened.

The father, Aliyu Gidado, told Punch his son, an SSS III student of FOMWAN Model Secondary School, Bauchi, was trying to put on the generator behind their house when the “sad accident” occurred.

“On Wednesday, April 22, at about 7pm, my son went to start the generator, but it went up in flames and the fire consumed him. He was burnt from head to toe,” he said.

The deceased’s father said efforts to save his son, who was to sit for Mathematics the following day after the incident, were unsuccessful.

“The doctors gave him a 50-50 chance, but his condition grew worse and he was placed on life support machine but his heart failed and he gave up,”

Aliyu expressed shock over the incident noting that Mubarak had been putting on the generator for many years.

He said, “As a father, you can’t quantify the grief of losing a child. It is God that gives and takes and we cannot question him. “I thank God for Mubarak’s life. He was an obedient child. He wanted to study Computer Science, but now he is no more.”

He added that his son’s school mates and teachers came to his house to sympathise with the family.