By Annette Kora – EMTV News, Port Moresby
In what seemed to be an innocent and senseless act, allegedly caused by a child; an eight-bedroom house went up in flames in the 9 Mile area just outside the McGregor Police Barracks around lunchtime today, Wednesday, February 20, leaving a family homeless.
Mother of two, Elisa Apa, told EMTV News that she and her two children had just returned home from school, when the eldest of the two, who had gone ahead to the house came running back out screaming that the fire had started in the house.
“Everything went up in flames, including money. The fire started inside the house, he said he was playing around with matches and even burned his own hands. ”
Not knowing what initially caused the fire to start, it is alleged that the 3-year-old was seen to have been playing around with matches around that time which possibly might have started the fire off.
Fire service arrived 30 to 45 minutes later at the scene, whereby then, the whole house was engulfed in flames and almost burned to the ground before they could put it out completely.
Unfortunately, the family was not able to save anything from the house. and there were no reports of casualties.
“The fire started in the living room and had spread out. We ran up and saw the kid running out of the house,” the mother of two said. “We couldn’t remove our belongings because the fire had already engulfed the house.”
The fire service has again, issued a warning to parents to keep hazardous items like matches and lighters away from small children as this could result in similar circumstances like what happened to this family.
