About five tankers believed to be laden with petroleum products were destroyed in a fire outbreak on Saturday morning at the Ekpan Tankers’ Park near the Warri refinery in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
A building near the scene of the incident was also engulfed in the process.
The inferno began at 7 pm on Friday evening. It started when one of the tankers which had already lifted petroleum product from the Warri refinery developed a fault and workers were loading the product into another tanker.
When SUNDAY PUNCH visited the park at 11 am on Saturday, the fire was still raging despite efforts by fire fighters from the Nigerian Gas Company and the state government to extinguish it.
Our correspondent gathered that efforts of the fire fighters could not prevent the fire from spreading to other tankers nearby.
A worker in the refinery who refused to give his name claimed that the fire was caused by a stick of cigarette that was not properly quenched by a smoker.
He said, ‘‘The fire would have consumed over 300 tankers in the refinery if not for the swift intervention of the tanker drivers who were around.’’
Some people who live nearby were seen vacating their homes to avoid being trapped in the inferno.
PUNCH
