The mortuary of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun state was on Tuesday gutted by fire as 12 out of the 102 corpses kept in the place got burnt.
The Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr Abiodun Olarewaju, told Daily Trust that the institution has made necessary arrangements to inform those who kept corpses in the morgue about the incident.
The fire outbreak, which occurred at its Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, was quenched by the combined efforts of the Security and Fire Services Unit of the university.
Olarewaju said “the fire broke out at around 3:00am today. It was caused by electricity surge which affected a section of the Morgue where corpses are kept.”
“Out of about One Hundred and Two (102) bodies that are kept in the morgue, Twelve (12) were affected by the fire outbreak.”
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, and other principal officers of the institution have visited the scene to assess the level of damage.
The Vice-Chancellor constituted a three-member committee to look into the immediate and remote causes of the fire outbreak.
The spokesman of the university said normalcy has returned and that there is no cause for panic.
