A woman and her three children, including a one- month -old baby, were burnt to death in their house in Nkangbe, a suburb of Minna, the Niger state capital.
The fire, which started at about 11.30 pm, raged for over three hours burning down the house completely.
However, the second wife identified as Fati and her two children were rescued with severe burns.
They are receiving treatment in an hospital, it was learnt.
Their husband, simply identified as Baba Abba, was said not to be home when the incident happened.
He was said to be working in Abuja, only returning home during the weekend.
The men of the fire service responded to the distress call immediately but the rescue was hampered by the jammed doors and window burglaries, making rescue very difficult.
The neighbours said they did not know the cause of the fire because the community had not had electricity for over two months as their transformer has been bad.
The cause of the fire remains unknown as even the fire service are working to find out the cause of the incident.
One of the neighbours, who engaged in the rescue, Musa Ibrahim, said they called the fire service immediately they saw flames coming from the house. (Nation)