A truck laden with 40,000 litres of diesel caught fire at the Iganmu area of Lagos state, razing three vehicles while another was badly damaged. The incident reportedly occured around 11a.m on Sunday January 19th 2014.
Punch reports:
It was learnt that the incident happened on a piece of land belonging to ZOOM Mobile Company.
Our correspondent, who visited the scene, which was located beside the National theatre, learnt that it took over five tankers of water to put out the flames.
Fire fighters told PUNCH Metro that some people were attempting to transfer fuel from one truck to the other when the fire broke out.
The Assistant Controller, Federal Fire Service, Ganiyu Olayiwola, told PUNCH Metro that the fire emanated from a machine which was used in pumping diesel from one truck to the other.
Olayiwola said the people transferring the fuel had fled before the arrival of firemen.
He said, “The fire started when some guys were transferring fuel from one tanker to the other. The activity is believed to be illegal because this does not look like the kind of place that people should be transferring fuel.
“We have expended more than 100,000 litres of water on battling the fire but it has continued to rage.”
Olayiwola said the dry season, coupled with the heat, had caused the high incidences of fire in the past few weeks.
The Head of Operations, Lagos State Fire Service, Mike Shonekan, told our correspondent that they were able to prevent a truck laden with petrol from bursting aflame.
He said over 30,000 litres of water had been expended on the flames.
He said, “We have been battling the fire for over two hours and we have had to deploy fire trucks from Ikeja, Ilupeju and Sari Iganmu fire stations. There is another tank filled with petrol that was affected but luckily, it did not explode.
“We were also able to prevent the fire from spreading to the bushes and the main warehouse.”
When our correspondent left the scene around 2pm, fire fighters were still battling with the fire.
Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said the owner of the affected vehicles had been invited to the Iponri Police Division for questioning.
“Around 11am on Sunday, a patrol team attached to Iponri Police Division while on patrol sighted flames coming out from ZOOM company premises very close to National Theatre gate, Iponri.
“The Divisional Police Officer mobilised firemen and in the process of transferring the diesel from two tankers with number plate, XZ26FKJ and XT465AGL, and another truck were burnt. The vehicles are owned by one Innocent Okonkwo who has been invited to the station”
