Gas tanker catches fireplace at filling station, destroy N130 million property 

A tanker bearing 33,000 liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) caught fireplace at Chab filling station reverse Star Paper Mill, Umuatako, Aba, in Abia, on Thursday, destroying property price over N130 million.

A employee with Chab, who pleaded anonymity, mentioned the fireplace outbreak started at about 12 midday and lasted until about 2:00 p.m. earlier than it was quenched by the Abia State Hearth Service firemen from each Aba and Umuahia stations.

Abia Chief Hearth Officer Arua Nnanna described the incident as avoidable.

He mentioned that the service had warned gasoline station house owners to at all times discharge their merchandise when the depth of the solar’s warmth just isn’t excessive. 

“I acquired a misery name in Umuahia that there’s a gasoline tanker fireplace in Aba so I needed to ship two vehicles from our Aba station at Structure Crescent.

“And by the point I acquired the second name, it was for help from Aba due to the depth of the fireplace.

“So I pushed the vehicles in Umuahia all the way down to Aba to make sure that every part was put below management. 

“As I’m speaking to you now, 4 vehicles are working there, two from Aba and two from Umuahia,” he mentioned.

Mr Nnanna mentioned that the fireplace outbreak is suspected to have been causes by the Gas Station’s failure to heed earlier warnings to cease discharging gasoline on the peak of the warmth of the solar.

He recommended that whereas the tanker was offloading PMS, the climate was sizzling and the station didn’t have essential security supplies readily available.

Mr Nnanna thanked residents and different safety companies for his or her cooperation which aided the management of the menacing fireplace outbreak. 

He additionally lauded the efforts of his males and described the firefight as one of many fiercest his males had taken half in lately.

Belenta Belenta, the Commander of Abia State Hearth Service, Aba Command, mentioned that the depth of the fireplace was past the capability of the Aba command, therefore the request for help from Umuahia. 

“We acquired the knowledge and rushed instantly with my males. The tanker was discharging and from that discharge, it resulted in a hearth outbreak. The tanker was loaded with 33,000 litres of PMS. 

“We battled the fireplace with the help of our foremost station in Umuahia. And we quenched it presumably with the kind of chemical we had. 

“We’re interesting to the federal government to come back to the fireplace service workplace to see what we actually want to make sure that we are going to proceed to serve higher. 

“If not that now we have succesful males who might handle fierce fires, we couldn’t have accomplished a lot as a result of we do not need sufficient tools for this kind of fireplace,” Belenta mentioned.

Workplace tools and merchandise on the enterprise centres inside Umungasi Publish Workplace had been destroyed by the fireplace.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia additionally visited the scene of the fireplace to evaluate the scenario however he didn’t converse concerning the fireplace outbreak. 

(NAN)