Retired female LUTH doctor killed in inferno

An octogenarian, Dr Katherine Rewane, has been killed after fire gutted her apartment on Tola Adewunmi Close, Wasinmi, Maryland, Lagos State.

It was learnt that the deceased, who lived alone in a detached five-bedroomed bungalow, had gone to bed on Tuesday night.

However, there was an explosion in her room immediately power was restored to the estate around 3.40am on Wednesday.

She was said to have suffocated to death, and her corpse recovered by the door after she apparently struggled in vain to get out of the house.

A close aide of the victim said they had played together before they went to bed the previous night.

She said, “There had been outage the previous day and at about 3.40am on Wednesday, power was restored. A few minutes after, I heard an explosion in her room.

“I rushed down to see what had happened, but her door was locked. I took the kitchen to her room and saw there was fire everywhere. I called her name, but she didn’t answer me.”

It was gathered that while an ambulance was arranged to take her remains to a mortuary, officials of the Lagos State Fire Service were contacted to put out the fire.

Some military men were reportedly deployed in the area by one of her relatives to stop people from taking snapshots of the scene, while a carpenter was employed to seal the building.

Another close aide of the deceased, who declined identification, told PUNCH Metro she had worked as a medical doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital before she retired.

He said, “She worked in LUTH as a medical doctor for about 30 years, while her husband, who died seven years ago, also worked in the same hospital. They later travelled to Saudi Arabia, where they stayed for a few years.

“They had five kids; while four live abroad, only one is in Lagos.”