Two persons were burnt to death when a liquefied petroleum gas laden tanker exploded at Ohoror community in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
The incident occurred at about 2:25am on Thursday January 27, at the popular Ohoro Junction, along Warri-Portharcout Expressway.
A total of four trucks, including the LPG-carrying truck, were burnt down in the fire accident
Properties including vehicles and over 20 residential buildings worth hundreds of millions of naira were razed down,
It was gathered that the ugly incident happened when a truck carrying granite rammed into a stationary truck said to be carrying diesel.
“The incident happened around 2 am last night when a trailer derailed and collided with one of the fuel tankers parked by the side of the East-West road,” a witness said.
“The diesel-laden tanker exploded and went into flames, which spread fire to other petrol and gas-laden tankers and burnt down over residential buildings in the community.”
Meanwhile, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has called for immediate assessment of the cause of the petroleum product tanker explosion.
Okowa made the call when he visited the scene of the incident.
He commiserated with the community on the tragedy and gave assurance that government would take steps to cushion the effect of the inferno on victims.
The governor said that no effort would be spared in putting out the fire completely and directed the State Director of Fire Service to remain on ground untill the fire was completely extinguished and other oil trucks posing a threat to the community were evacuated.
The governor who was accompanied by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chief Sherrif Oborevwori and Secretary to the State Government, Chief Patrick Ukah, commended the Fire Service for prompt response and advised the community to keep off from the fire scene in addition to being vigilant to avoid loss of lives as government was working hard to contain the spread of the explosion.
Briefing the governor earlier, the state’s Director of Fire Services, Mr Eugene Oziwele, said that his men were alerted at dawn and he quickly mobilized to the community.
He added that fire-fighting trucks were mobolised from Ughelli to ensure that the fire was extinguished completely.
Also briefing the governor, President-General of Uwheru Kingdom, Chief Macpherson Igbedi, said that no fewer than 20 houses were gutted by the fire and appealed for more efforts in evacuating an abandoned tanker laden with gas from exploding.
He said two trucks conveying gas and diesel rammed into each other at the Ohoror junction before the explosion occurred.
