He survived but watched fire consume his mother, siblings

He survived but watched fire consume his mother, siblings

Paul Amoru & Sam Lawino
PaderSeven days ago, 12-year-old Francis Ojok of Ojile village, Pajule Sub-county in Pader District belonged to a family of four siblings and a mother. Today, he is alone and orphaned after that family was snatched away by a bushfire. Ojok almost lost his own life to the fire. He cheated death and survived, but with burns covering 90 per cent of his body. Besides the physical damage, the teenager also has emotional scars to contend with; two of the family members who perished in the accident were four-month-old twin siblings, George Opio and Joyce Acen, who he had particularly grown fond of. The others are his mother, grandmother and two other siblings. Late last week, Daily Monitor visited Ojok at Pajule Health Centre IV where he is nursing burns on his head, back, arms and foot, and the fire survivor narrated his harrowing ordeal. Ojok says the family had gone to harvest sweet potatoes and cowpeas when the fire started. He says he warned his mother about the approaching fire but she told him it would not reach them. But his mother had under-estimated the speed at which the fire was spreading on that hot and windy Tuesday. By the time they decided to run, it was too late. “Fire was approaching right ahead of us and we also saw it coming from the sides,” Ojok recalls. But when they turned to run, Ojok and his family again saw the blazing flames closing in on them so fast.

IN AGONY: Ojok’s scarred back. PHOTO BY PAUL AMORUThat is when panic and confusion set in. Only one narrow exit was left but the heat, the wind and the smoke started choking them. It is amidst the wailing and cries for help that Ojok says he resolved to face the blazing flames and run through it to survival.The 12-year-old pupil of Pajule Primary School says his mother, grandmother and the four children died because they could not run fast. Ojok says he dropped everything he was carrying and resisted the temptation to wait for the rest of his family. “I lost my shoes while crossing the inferno,” he recalls. “But when I succeeded, I heard yelling and cries behind and upon returning, I saw my mother and everybody lying dead when the fire was no more.” Ojok added, “I feared getting any closer to them. So I ran home immediately to report.”The tragedy has left Ojok hopeless and lonely. In the middle of the narrative, he breaks down and cries for over 10 minutes. Not even our efforts to calm him are successful. The trauma is stark. “I keep seeing the images of my mother and brothers, and the sounds of their wailing keeps resounding in my mind. But why did this happen?” Ojok asks but no one offers an answer. On the day Daily Monitor visited Ojok at the health centre, he was being looked after by his 13-year-old sister, Scovia Lakot. Ojok’s father, Mr Bosco Okello, is a UPDF soldier and though he is still alive, relatives said his where abouts are not known. “It is possible he has not even heard about this tragedy yet, that is why he did not come for the burial,” said Mr Moro Johnson, the survivors uncle. Mr Moro, the only brother of Ojok’s late mother, who has been studying carpentry and joinery at Pajule technical, says his plans to complete his education have been shattered by the tragedy. “This is unbelievable. It is a challenge God has given me to care for the orphans of my sisters and my own mother, to pay their fees and feed them yet I do not earn any money,” says Moro.He said his late sister used to pay his school fees with proceeds from the farm but that he now sees a dark lonely future.“I feel next term I may not get back to join my fellow students because death has robed me of my future,” he adds, fighting back tears. “I felt like committing suicide and right now I am very traumatised. We worked together to raise the family now it is gone with the wind,” says Moro.Moro, who also has to take care of his late mother Pirigina Akullo’s two children, has appealed for help from the government and humanitarian agencies to pay their school fees.