The circumstances surrounding the burning to death of a recently married couple in a petrol fire incident are being looked into by Arua City police.
Lillian Anguezaru Fungaro, 20, of Okuazaku cell, Arivu ward, Ayivu Division, Arua City, and her husband Emmanuel Adima, 30, also of the same cell, have been identified as the deceased pair.
The event happened on Tuesday night at around 11 p.m. in the couple’s residential home—they were married just two weeks ago, according to the police.
While her husband Adima, who had been brought to Arua Regional Referral Hospital in serious condition, managed to escape the house after suffering severe burns all over his body, Anguezaru died instantaneously from burns.
On Wednesday, January 24, 2024, Adima passed away.
The dead couple’s neighbour, Francis Abiti, said that they were awakened at around 11 p.m. by the couple’s cries for aid, and when they went outside, they discovered flames inside the house.
He also claims that Adima has dealt in fuel selling that has been smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“At approximately 11 p.m., we heard them yelling for help inside their house. When we went outside to investigate, we discovered that the house was on fire, and we were helpless to put it out,” Abiti recalled.
The Regional Fire Brigade crew arrived at the scene at 11:43 p.m., but discovered Anguezaru had already burned beyond recognition, according to Josephine Angucia, the Police spokesperson for the West Nile district.
She claims that the nearby buildings were spared and the fire was put out by the fire brigade crew.
The fire team hurried to the spot at 11:43 p.m. to save the situation after notifying the Regional Head of Fire Brigade West Nile.
They discovered that the fire was at Adima Emmanuel’s residential home and that it had already completely burned his wife to death, according to Angucia.
According to preliminary police investigations, the house was already heavily fuming from gasoline when the matchbox was lit inside.
The West Nile region frequently experiences gasoline fires, which the local authorities link to the widespread smuggling of fuel from across the border between South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is made easier by the numerous illegal entrance sites.
Agnes Omveku and her two-year-old son, Emmanuel Trinity, perished in a gasoline fire at her Ribini A cell business in the Maracha sector of the Maracha Town Council in August of last year.
Similar to this, in Triangle Cell Koboko North division Koboko Municipality in September 2021, Kassim Ajo, a South Sudanese national, lost his life in an inferno in Koboko district while trying to rescue his fuel from a grass-thatched house that had caught fire.