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From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
An early morning explosion involving a loaded petroleum products tanker in a filling station in Aba, Abia State, left one person burnt beyond recognition, while several others received various degrees of injuries. The inferno, which according to eyewitnesses came as a result of a spark from a faulty electrical connection, also got four heavy-duty petroleum products tanker lorries parked in the filling station, burnt.
Daily Sun gathered that the fire incident which occurred at an Obaino petrol station in Alaoji, Ukpakiri, Obingwa Local Government Area of the State, along the Aba Ikot Ekpene Highway, early on Wednesday (yesterday morning), was later put off by men of the State Fire Service Department, who got alerted soon after it began.
Sources said the men of the Aba fire service station, had to fetch water twice from the nearby Ogbo Hill waterside, some ten kilometres from the scene, to contain the fire that was aided by inflammable substances in the filling station.
One of the sources, who refused to be named, told our correspondent that he was within the filling station area, when an explosion occurred from a loaded tanker, after a spark of light suspected to be from a faulty electrical connection.
“At first, we thought it was a bomb, but when the tanker caught fire and it began to spread to other vehicles, we had to call the officers of the Aba Zonal Fire Service Station along Constitution Crescent, to report the matter.
“They did not waste time to arrive, though before then, one person had been trapped by the fiery spread, with other vehicles engulfed in thick smoke.
In another development, a rainstorm, last Tuesday evening, destroyed property worth millions of Naira at the Iheorji market, a community market along Ohanku Road, in Aba South Council Area.
Though no life was lost in the incident, a young man was said to have been injured with his clothes torn by a falling electricity pole and wires, while business and residential houses, and other valuables including wares displayed for sale by traders, got carried away by heavy flood and were seen floating dangerously, along the streets.
According to some traders in the market, the heavy downpour, which was the first in weeks, came without warning and with thunder and lightning that shook the area and beyond severally while the rains lasted from two o’clock in the afternoon until six, in the evening.
On their part, commuters who had gone to other parts of Aba town from the area for their various businesses had to suffer on their way home as transportation costs got increased by over 300 per cent, by the few minibuses that were operating while commercial tricycles were parked due to excessive flooding of the alleyways into the area, with Ohanku road currently impassable due to construction work that is ongoing at the moment.
