Ovie Okpare
About five tankers believed to be laden
with petroleum products were destroyed in a fire outbreak on Saturday
morning at the Ekpan Tankers’ Park near the Warri refinery in Uvwie
Local Government Area of Delta State.
A building near the scene of the incident was also engulfed in the process.
The inferno began at 7 pm on Friday
evening. It started when one of the tankers which had already lifted
petroleum product from the Warri refinery developed a fault and workers
were loading the product into another tanker.
When SUNDAY PUNCH visited the
park at 11 am on Saturday, the fire was still raging despite efforts by
fire fighters from the Nigerian Gas Company and the state government to
extinguish it.
Our correspondent gathered that efforts of the fire fighters could not prevent the fire from spreading to other tankers nearby.
A worker in the refinery who refused to
give his name claimed that the fire was caused by a stick of cigarette
that was not properly quenched by a smoker.
He said, ‘‘The fire would have consumed
over 300 tankers in the refinery if not for the swift intervention of
the tanker drivers who were around.’’
Some people who live nearby were seen vacating their homes to avoid being trapped in the inferno.
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