In what seems like a season of fire in Lagos State,
pandemonium ensued today at Waterworks Road, off Liverpool, Apapa, when two
tankers fully loaded with petroleum products exploded in a loading bay
belonging to Petrol-Cargo Limited.
The fire is coming barely days after the state’s
City Mall in Alausa, Ikeja caught fire and weeks after the MRS Tank Farm in
Apapa, was gutted by fire.
As at press time, concerted efforts by the Lagos
State Emergency Agency (LASEMA), the state Fire Service, the Merchant Navy and
the Nigeria Police, proved abortive as the fire continued to rage.
To prevent loss of lives, school children from
United Secondary School, which is located besides the loading bay, were asked by
the rescue team to evacuate the premises.
Speaking to THISDAY, one of the teachers in the
school who spoke on terms of anonymity said she was in class when the ground was jolted by
the explosion.
She said, “School was in session and the suddenly we
heard was a loud booming sound. We rushed outside and it was then we saw thick
billows of smoke.
“We were then tasked to maintain calm among the
students which we did. In fact, we were still in the school premises before the
emergency team came in and helped us evacuate our students to safety.”
However, despite concerted efforts to escort the
school children out the premises safely, some of them who were scared by the
flames and the hotness of the fire were seen jumping the canal to safety.
While maintaining
that they adhered to all safety rules guiding loading bays, the owner of the
loading bay, Mr. Emmanuel Eze who spoke through his father, Chief Ikechukwu
Eze, said no life was lost.
He said, “We have fleet of trucks in the bay and when
we load products at the tank farm, the tankers park at the bay pending when
they will go to distribute the product.
“What happened was that one of the tanker drivers
was supposed to go and distribute the products but unfortunately his truck
refused to start and instead of calling an electrician, he decided to do it
himself.
“He tried to start the truck manually but he did not
know that the fuel pump was leaking. So when he started it, it caught fire and
entered the fuel pump and then into the vehicle tank resulting to an out -pour
of fire.
“The main thing started when the fire entered the
product tank but we tried everything possible to contain and restrict it to the
compound, an effort that proved successful.”
Eze commended the promptness of the state fire
service, adding that the estimate of the loss could be pegged at over
N40million being the cost of the product and the two tankers.
Confirming the incident, a senior LASEMA member of staff
who spoke on terms of anonymity said investigations are ongoing to ascertain the
true cause of the fire.
According to him, contrary to claims by the owner
that the fire was as a result of attempt to start the tanker manually, he said
evidence on ground proved otherwise.
He said, “When we received the distress call, we
quickly moved in with other stakeholders and what we found on ground suggests
that they were loading fuel from one tanker to another.
“Investigations are ongoing because we saw a pumping
machine on the ground between both tankers and it could have been what
triggered the fire.”
No comments:
Post a Comment