How Calabar tanker fire turned shop owners to beggars

From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar

Sunday mornings in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State are usually for church bells and quiet trading. Last Sunday, it was for screams, losses and ashes.

Around 6:15 a.m., opposite the Odukpani Local Government headquarters along the Calabar-Itu Highway, a diesel-laden tanker crashed at a diverted portion of the road under rehabilitation, tipped over, hit another truck within the area and spilled its content.

Seconds later, its contents spilled across the road and onto an adjourning street and the vicinity was on fire.

By the time the flames died, two lives comprising the tanker driver and it’s conductor had been lost. Both died from the grave fire that consumed them.

A small roadside market, with over 12 shops comprising steel fabricated shops, and others that fed dozens of families had become black soot and twisted containers. Shop owners who opened the year as traders now call themselves beggars.

Anthonia Patrick, a minister’s wife who sells baking ingredients, was still inside her village when her daughter started shouting.

“We saw flames going up. People told me, pastor’s wife, your shop is gone,” she recounted.

When she got to her shop, the roof was gone, the wiring melted, the canopy outside reduced to ash.

“I have to change the entire roofing. In this economy, that is over six million naira,” she said, staring at the charred ceiling.

A few metres away, Obonda Goodluck stood before what used to be a thriving phone accessories shop. He was dressed for church when he heard someone shout ‘fire on the road.

“I ran down, but the heat would not let me come close. Two weeks ago I buried my senior brother. I restocked the shop hoping to hold onto something. In one week, everything was burned. Phones, iPads, chargers, electrical parts. Nothing came out. At least N12 million gone,” he said.

The young father of two said he has not been able to sleep since.

“I don’t have anywhere to start from. This shop is our only means of survival.”

For Kufre Sunday Ekpo, the loss smells of gas. He sells cylinders and burners. Inside his locked container, he said, were four 60kg cylinders filled with gas, cartons of burners, rubber chairs and over N300,000 cash.

“Everything is gone. Even the steel container itself costs over a million. In total, about eight million naira, excluding the container,” he said.

“I have a wife and three children. Since last weekend, feeding has been difficult.”

Next to him, a foodstuff trader who gave her name as Enobong Samuel had just returned from Benue on Thursday with 300 tubers of yam, cartons of noodles, oil and and other large scale food items.

Her steel shop which is now ashes had  two large deep freezers fully loaded with drinks, counters with provisions, litters of groundnut oil and bags of sea foods like periwinkles .

“My house is beside my shop. Around past six, we heard an explosion. I was not thinking of the shop again, I was crying for my house,” she said. “My stock book is ashes. I cannot even list everything I lost.”

Other victims like Emmanuel Dennis also lost large quantities of assorted bags, shoes and leather related items to the fire.

Besides the shops, a large liquor bar was also burnt razed. A full account of the disaster the extent of destruction is still being awaited by relevant government agencies including the State Emergency Management Agency.

Residents blame the deplorable diversion and poor signage on the Calabar-Itu Highway, which has been under rehabilitation for years.

“The tanker driver was oblivious of the bump. There was no sign,” an eyewitness said.

The official cause of the crash is yet to be confirmed by the Federal Road Safety Corps.

Cross River State Police Spokesman ASP Sunday Eitokpah confirmed the two deaths.

Governor Bassey Otu, who inspected the scene,  commended residents who risked their lives to put out the fire and consoled victims.

“At times like this, we should come together and support one another,” Otu said, assuring of government intervention that would address both the immediate losses and the safety gaps on the highway.

The affected traders are still reeling from their losses, always gathering  in front of their burnt shops, not selling, just sitting — counting losses, waiting and praying fervently for help.