Tanker explosion hits Abia, guts filling station
Solomon Ezeme
Barely 72 hours after a reported case of a LPG tanker explosion in Ohoror Community, Ughelli North LGA of Delta State which killed 2 and burnt about 30 buildings, residents of Aba in South-East Nigeria have been greeted with a fuel tanker explosion in the early hours of Saturday.
The inferno which lasted for about two hours, reportedly destroyed a filling station in Aba, Umuahia, Abia State in which premises it erupted.
It started when a diesel-laden tanker suddenly exploded in the premises of a filling station identified as Master Energy, belonging to the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Uchechukwu Samson Ogah.
Residents explained that the fuel tanker was discharging diesel into an underground tank in the filling station when the fire erupted affecting both the tanker and the filling station.
Some residents were seen at the scene of the explosion with different containers filled with water, pouring water into the large fire in an attempt to assist fire-fighters quench it and prevent further spread as residential buildings could be sighted close by.
