The fire, which lasted about 3 hours on Saturday, took down the mortuary building located behind the health center center.

The fire was said to have originated from a burning bush behind the morgue.

PUNCH Metro collected that when the fire started, mortuary attendants put water mixed with cleaning agent to douse the flame.

When the fire intensified, they called the state fire service.

When our reporter checked out the scene on Sunday, it was a gory sight, as households who deposited corpses in the mortuary regreted the circumstance.

Some, who had actually pertained to bring their remains for burial, burst into tears when they saw that the mortuary was in ruins.

Among them, Charles Ozor, said, “We concerned take the remains of a community member for burial just for us to see that the corpses in the morgue had actually been burnt beyond acknowledgment. We are confused; we do not know what to do.”

An eyewitness, who did not wish to be recognized, recalled that someone had cleared the bush behind the morgue and set it on fire.

He said, “The bush is a bit far from the mortuary. Prior to we understood what was happening, we saw that the roof of the mortuary had caught fire. There were over 400 corpses inside the structure. The whole place was swallowed up in fire. Prior to firefighters came, the fire had actually caused a lot of damage; most of the remains were burnt to ashes and some beyond acknowledgment.

“The firefighters fought to stop the fire from escalating to other buildings. The water in their tank ended up; they had to go and fill up elsewhere since the hospital does not have a water center on its premises.”

An auxiliary employee, who did not mention her name, told PUNCH Metro that the morgue had been contracted to a personal operator.

The operator of the morgue, who determined himself merely as Emma, said, “I had actually gone to Awka to bring some corpses. While I was there, I was informed about the fire on the phone and I hurried down immediately. Before I arrived here, the fire had actually done a great deal of damage.

“The fire burnt both fresh and abandoned corpses packed inside the morgue. The chemicals we utilized in preserving the corpses should have exacerbated the fire. The chemicals are extremely flammable and they burn faster than fuel.”

The Director of the Anambra State Fire Service, Mr Martin Agbili, who verified that the fire was from bush burning, included that firefighters fought to stop the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings.

He said, “We received a distress signal from the General Hospital, Onitsha, and we released our males and the firemens’ devices to put out the fire.

“We learnt that the fire came through the bush and we have been informing people to guarantee that they cut the bushes around their houses and avoid bush burning since this harmattan duration, fire can originate from anywhere, even from a far range, since every surface area is inflammable and dry.”

He kept in mind that though there was no death, those who tried to put out the fire sustained differing degrees of burns.

Scorched remains still littered the area of the morgue as of the time of filing the report.

ToriNG