BREAKING: Fire Destroys Popular Petrol Station In Abia [PHOTO/VIDEO]

BREAKING: Fire Destroys Popular Petrol Station In Abia [PHOTO/VIDEO]

EKO HOT BLOG reports that a fire outbreak on Saturday morning destroyed Masters Energy filling station along Aba road in Abia state.

A resident who witnessed the incident said a tanker conveying petroleum product to the station exploded.

The Abia State Fire Service and good-spirited Abians are fighting the fire as of the time of this publishing this report.

The incident

Watch the video here.

Information gathered from the Abia State fire service indicates that there were about 20 fire outbreaks at Aba and Umuahia markets between June 2020 and April 2021.

The State Director of Fire Services and Chairman of National Conference of Directors of Fire Services in Nigeria, Victor Gbaruko, told Guardian last year that the incidents occurred at ‘A-Line’ and ‘Shoe Plaza’ sections of Aba, Ariaria Market.

Others were at New Market, Cemetery Road, Shopping Centre, Jubilee/Hospital Road Machine Parts market and Onions market along the Aba-Port Harcourt expressway, all in Aba. The fire director put the estimate losses at over N900 million.

There was also a major fire outbreak at Umuahia, Timber Market located along Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene, which razed about three lines of stalls on 5th January, 2021 as disclosed by Chairman of the Timber Market Traders Association, Ndubuisi Nwosu.

Nwosu said it was a major fire incident that took the state fire service four days to quench. He estimated that about N250 million was lost.

Media reports showed that between 2019 and 2021, Nigeria experienced severe fire incidents, leading to 79 deaths out of 68 fires recorded in 18 months. Thirty-one of these were market fires and the losses are still being counted.

Statistics from the Federal Fire Service (FFS) indicates that between 2020 and 2021, a total of 4,541 calls were made to the agency nationwide and 378 rescue emergencies were recorded.

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Riwan Deola