Two die in early morning fire in filling station

Two men died in Wednesday early morning fire outbreak at Chibyno filling station along Alaoji – Ikot-Ekpene Road in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia, Aba Fire Service has said.

The Aba Zonal Commander of the Service, Mr Belenta Belenta, confirmed the incident to News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday morning in Aba.

Belenta, who spoke from the scene, said that he suspected that the victims were involved in oil bunkering which might have informed the discharging of petroleum products at the station at the wee hours of the day.

He said that over five trucks were consumed by the fire which was caused by an explosion at the site of the incident.

He said his men were informed of the incident in the early hours of Wednesday, prompting their move to the scene where they employed all tactics to quench the fire.

He also said that the police had visited the scene to take the corpse of one of the victims of the accident who died immediately at the scene to the mortuary.

Belenta said at the time of speaking with NAN, the other victim who was rushed to the hospital had been reported dead also.

Another witness, who only gave his name as Nnamdi, said he lived in the area and was awakened by calls around 5 : 00 a.m. to come to the scene of the fire.

“Very early this morning around 5 a.m., some persons called me to tell me that there is a fire outbreak at a nearby filling station called Chibyno Filling Station at the Ikot-Ekpene / Alaoji road.

“We called fire fighters who came to the scene which had snowballed into a very big inferno that covered the whole filling station.

“The filling station had four trucks which were discharging fuel at the same time.

“We learnt that there was a little spark from the generating set they were using to pump the fuel into their tank which resulted in an explosion,” he narrated.

Nnamdi said one person died at the scene on Wednesday morning while another badly burnt victim was rushed to the hospital.

Efforts made to reach the Public Relations Officer of Abia Command of the Nigerian Police, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna failed as he did not take his calls.