A petrol tanker, on Friday, exploded at a filling station in Ogidi — a neighbouring town of the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State.
The explosion caused a fire outbreak, which razed down part of the filling station. A source said the fire started at about 10 am on Friday, when the petrol tanker discharging petroleum product in the filling station sparked off the fire, thereby causing an explosion and fire outbreak.
According to the sources, “There was pandemonium in the entire area of Ogidi. The petrol tanker was discharging fuel at the filling station when a small spark of fire was noticed, but before it could be extinguished, the tanker was already in flames, burning down part of filling station”.
Confirming the fire outbreak, the Director, Anambra State Fire Service, Mr Martin Agbili, said his men had put off the fire.
He said, “At about 09:53 am today (Friday), we received a distress call of a fire outbreak at a Petrol Filling Station at 7th Mile, Ogidi. Our fire trucks and firefighters were deployed to the fire incident scene. Anambra State Fire Service, Awka, Nigeria and Federal Fire Service were there to fight the fire. The fire had been completely controlled and extinguished now.
“There was no loss of life while the filling station was saved; the fire affected the tanker. The cause of the fire outbreak was a result of a spark from the pumping ground during their transloading process.
“We will continue to tell petrol filling station owners to stop discharging and transloading under the intensity of the sun or during the day. This practice is best done in the night or at the early hours of the morning,”
