Baby boy perishes in house fire

National, Normal
Source:

By ALISON ANIS

A SEVEN-month-old boy was burnt to death in a fire which razed a house in the outskirts of Port Moresby on Monday.
Twenty children were also made homeless by the fire at Bomana junction about 5.30pm after  heavy rain.
The baby’s father Michael Wakipa told The National his son was asleep in the house when the fire started which occurred after rain water came in contact with exposed live cables.
“Everything happened so fast.
“First there was a loud cracking noise from outside which sounded like fireworks and then all our electrical appliances blew up, and the house was on fire,” Mr Wakipa said.
He said he saw sparks coming from the cable connected to the transmitter outside their home and believed this may have caused the fire.
Witnesses said they saw sparks coming from the connection leading to their house.
“We saw the sparks but this happened so quickly and then we saw that their house was on fire,” a villager said.
Mr Wakipa said the fire started from the back of the house where his son was asleep, so he was not able to go in quickly to save his son.
“Within seconds, everything was gone, including my son,”  he said.
The rain did nothing to stop the raging flames, he said.
Mr Wakipa and his family were in shock and had appealed for help from relatives and friends.
He said he called PNG Power soon after the incident and reported the matter but they did not fix the power lines until the following morning.
A make-shift home using charred remains from the fire have been erected where the family will be living for the time being.
 “We lost everything.
“Our home and personal belongings including valuable items and a trade store with more than K3,000 in cash,” he said.