How Joy Amos Became Bille’s First Reported Victim After Answering A Phone Call – Health Worker
The situation in Bille Kingdom has evolved from an environmental crisis into what residents describe as a public safety emergency. Communities are living in fear as gas continues to bubble through waterways and emerge from the ground, with multiple emission points reportedly appearing around residential areas and near schools.
With water sources contaminated, residents have increasingly depended on water supplied by NGOs for drinking, cooking and washing. Economic activities have also been severely disrupted, as some residents say they are afraid to leave their homes because of exposure to the gas. Residents have reported experiencing dizziness, fainting and other health symptoms when exposed to the emissions.
Against this backdrop, Mrs. Vwairhe So-ingo Syer, the health worker who battled to save the life of Joy Amos, described as Bille’s first reported victim of a gas-related fire incident, has recounted the events surrounding the tragedy.
In this interview with Extractive360’s Juliet Ukanwosu, conducted on the sidelines of the just-concluded National Extractive Dialogue (#NED2026), organised by Spaces for Change and partners in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Mrs. Syer gives a chilling account of what Joy told her about her experiences in the period leading up to the incident.
She recounts how Joy’s room suddenly went up in flames after she answered a phone call, and the desperate efforts to save her life. Mrs. Syer also speaks about the wider health concerns emerging in Bille, including reports of women developing visibly protruding abdomens that residents fear may be linked to the environmental conditions in the community, among others.
Excerpts:
Tell me about yourself?
My name is Mrs. Vwairhe So-ingo Syer, I am a Nurse, and I run a maternity known as Syer Maternity Health Care in Bille Kingdom.
Did you know your Amos before the fire incident?
No, I didn’t know Joy Amos before the fire incident. It was when she had the fire accident that I knew her, when they brought her to my maternity.
What was her condition when she was brought to your maternity?
When she was brought to me, she was 80 degree burnt. Her head was burnt, her face was burnt, you will not be able to recognize her face, especially her back downwards was burnt, with her hands, they were severely burnt.
Was she able to talk, what did she tell you happened?
The day they brought her in she was unable to talk due to the shock, but eye witnesses said Joy was in her apartment when they heard a loud noise. When they rushed in to help her, they discovered that the whole place was covered with fire. They were able to put out the fire before they brought her out. Later, after Joy had received treatment for three days, that was when I started asking her what happened. Then she was out of the shock and I was able to ask her what really happened. She said on that fateful day on the 3rd of September, she was lying down on her bed, she was holding her small phone, she received a call, then the next thing she heard was a blast and the whole place was covered with fire. She cried and shouted for help, people who heard the noise rushed in to her apartment and were able to bring her out.
Witnesses say the gas cylinder in her apartment was not burnt, so it wasn’t a gas cylinder related fire?
That is correct. Initially when they brought her in, people were suspecting that it was the gas cylinder that got burnt. But on the second day people went to the apartment, to their greatest surprise, they noticed that the cylinder was untouched, it was kept the same way Joy left it. The cylinder was there, and the carton which Joy placed the cylinder in, was still intact nothing happened to the carton. It was just from the side Joy was lying down in that the explosion took place. Joy was able to confide in me, and other persons, that she was planning to ask her landlady to move her upstairs as she was living in a storey building, unfortunately that had not happened before her death. She told me that at nights around 2:00am, she would normally hear a sound which she initially thought could be coming from outside, or could be a generator sound from outside. But one fateful day, she said she heard the sound from under the earth, it was making noise like something was boiling beneath the earth in her room. So, she paid close attention, she complained to other of her neighbors and they said they are noticing same thing. So, they confirmed that it was the bubbling that was outside that was boiling under the building, before the unfortunate incident happened to her.
How did you manage her treatment? what kind of treatment did you help her with?
When Joy came in, I was able to resuscitate her because she was having difficulty in breathing. For the first three days I placed her on oxygen, and because of that incident she had ulcer which means she was unable to take anything orally, anything we give to Joy was true IV infusion. Everything was through the vein, that was what we were giving to Joy throughout the period of her stay, before she started responding from the third day. She started eating, she went to toilet. And I was able to manage the wound by using antibiotics, disinfectants on the surface, giving antibiotics and everything that will help bring out the gas in her system. I was able to extract and reduce the gas level in her system. For that first three days, Joy was vomiting frequently and anything she brings out was dark, and she was unable to go to toilet. But from the third day she started going to toilet.
Why was she brought to your maternity, is there no government General Hospital in Bille?
We have a government Health Center in Bille, but they lack facilities and materials because for you to get antibiotics it’s not a simple thing. Nothing is there frankly speaking, nothing is there. So, they depend mainly on my maternity because I do go out to my customers, they will give me medications on credit, later I pay back because of the trust they have in me. But in handling the incident of Joy, we spent over two million Naira treating her. Everything that we used for the nine days that joy stayed with me before the government came to take her, I was not paid a dime. When they came and said I should release Joy to them, they did not pay me a dime. I release Joy to them believing that they are taking her to a better place where she can receive proper treatment. Mind you, before Joy left, she was walking, she had started eating, her face had been cleared. I even have some of the pictures of the way they brought her in and the progress within the period she stayed with us. Even the back, she has started lying down with the back and her face was dried, even the skull. I was the one that barbed Joy’s hair when she came because all her hair was burnt. Even the hand, you will see that they were different from when they brough her in. There was a huge difference between when she came in and when they took her out. So, I had believed that as they took her out, they would give her better treatment, but we don’t really know what happened, the news we heard after nine days was that Joy has died.
Was it the Rivers State government or Local government that took her from you?
It was RST, (Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, RSUTH), they took her to the Rivers State (University) Teaching Hospital where she later died after nine days.
Have you been paid for the cost of the treatment you gave her?
No. Nothing has been given to me.
Is there any promise from the government to pay you?
The promise I have is from NGO’s. Social Action and Kebetkache Women’s Development Centre, they said they will solicit for help for me so that I will be able to pay my customers where I collected medications from on credit.
As a health worker, what health issues have you noticed generally in Bille, among men, women, and children?
For the women mainly they are having bloating. If you see them it will be as if they are pregnant but they are not pregnant. And most of them are complaining of constipation, that food don’t easily get digested in their system. They are having difficulty in breathing, most of them have come down with asthma. I will have to nebulize them before they will be okay. For the children, we have noticed frequent diarrhea, vomiting; and for some persons we have noticed frequent collapse. Before you know it, they just feel dizzy, the next thing they have collapsed. Just like the case of the teacher Mrs. Rolando that collapsed when she entered into her classroom, and so many other conditions like itching. You see conjunctivitis, eyes getting red, you see the men will be complaining of weakness, fatigue just like that. That is what is happening now in Bille.
How is the economic life in Billle? Especially now that the rivers are contaminated and people can no longer fish, What are people surviving on? How do you get clean drinking water?
Now we depend on the mercy of NGO’s for water, like Kebetkache, Social Action and some other NGO’s, we have been on their mercy. The government has also brought palliatives, but since August we have not seen anything again. The economic condition of Bille Kingdom has drastically dropped, to the extent that some persons even come to my maternity to get paracetamol and they don’t have the money to pay. But you are seeing that this person is dying, you have to help. They will say I will pay; and that person perhaps is someone that has been patronizing your business before now, so you will not just allow the person to die. I have treated some persons just like that, and they have not paid. We are just helping each other in any way we can. You can go to your neighbor’s house and ask if the person has garri, you will beg, they will give you, just like that. That is how it has been in Bille Kingdom. We have just been living by the mercy of God.
What message do you have for the government right now?
The message I have for the government is that they should come to Bille, they should come to our aid. We are tired of these visits, though we know the visits are important, but they should do something because our livelihood has drastically dropped and our health is deteriorating by the day. And we don’t know what we are even facing because no proper medical screening has been done, so we don’t know if some of our organs have been damaged. We don’t know if the next thing is death, but God forbid! We don’t want it to come to that, but some persons have died due to this crisis and some persons are collapsing frequently. So, we are saying that the government should come to Bille, they should look for a permanent solution to this gas that is bubbling all over Bille, it should come to an end. They should restore our land back for us.
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