At Chab filling station, Umuatako, Aba, in Abia, a tanker carrying 33,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) caught fire on Thursday, damaging property valued more than N130 million.
An employee of Chab, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed that the fire breakout started about midday and didn't get under control until around 2 o'clock, when Abia State Fire Service firefighters from both the Aba and Umuahia stations arrived to put it out.
Arua Nnanna, the chief fire officer of the Abia State Fire Service, said the tragedy might have been prevented.
He said that the service had instructed operators of gas stations to always discharge their goods when the sun's heat is not intense.
‘I got a distress call in Umuahia that there was a fuel tanker fire in Aba so I had to send two trucks from our Aba station at Constitution Crescent.
“And by the time I got the second call, it was for assistance from Aba because of the intensity of the fire.
“So I pushed the trucks in Umuahia down to Aba to ensure everything was controlled.
“As I am talking to you now, four trucks are working there, two from Aba and two from Umuahia,” he said.
Nnanna said that the fire outbreak is suspected of having been caused by the fuel station’s failure to heed earlier warnings to stop discharging fuel at the peak of the sun's heat.
He suggested that while the tanker was offloading PMS, the weather was hot, and the station did not have the necessary safety materials.
Nnanna thanked residents and other security agencies for their cooperation which aided the control of the menacing fire outbreak.
He also lauded the efforts of his men and described the firefight as one of the fiercest his men had taken part in recently.
Belenta Belenta, the Commander of Abia State Fire Service, Aba Command, said that the intensity of the fire was beyond the capacity of the Aba command, hence the request for assistance from Umuahia.
“We got the information and rushed immediately with my men. The tanker was discharging, and that discharge, it resulted in a fire outbreak. The tanker was loaded with 33,000 litres of PMS.
“We battled the fire with the assistance of our central station in Umuahia. And we quenched it, possibly with the type of chemical we had.
“We are appealing to the government to come to the fire service office to see what we really need to ensure that we will continue to serve better.
“If not that we have capable men who could manage fierce fires, we couldn’t have done much because we do not have enough equipment for this type of fire,” Belenta said.
Prime9jaOnline reports that the fire destroyed office equipment and products at the business centres within Umungasi Post Office.
Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia also visited the scene of the fire to assess the situation but he did not speak about the fire outbreak.