Two persons were confirmed dead, while seven others were injured in an explosion at a gas plant in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta, Ogun State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred around 11.30am on Thursday.
According to an eyewitness, who declined to give her name, a welder was welding a gas tank when the gas therein escaped and the vapour caught fire from a generator being used in a shop adjacent to the gas plant.
The fire, the eyewitness added, followed the vapour back to the gas plant located inside a filling station, RABENG Oil, and exploded into huge flames.
Two attendants, identified simply as Jaiye and Ibrahim, were said to have been caught up in the ensuing inferno. Seven others, including a seven year-old child, sustained various degree of burns.
Equally, four shops were razed, while a Toyota van parked inside the station, as well as a motorcycle were burnt in the incident. The rider of the motorcycle was said to have escaped death by a whisker.
Ibrahim and a seven-year-old toddler reportedly died later.
The fire raged for almost two hours, and gutted many shops, apart from the filling station.
Property and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed before firefighters from the state fire service put out the fire.
The Ogun State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Akinwande Aboluwoye, said two persons died in the inferno, while seven others were injured.
He said, “The corpses of the deceased have been deposited in the mortuary of the State General Hospital, Ijaiye in Abeokuta, while those injured are receiving treatment in the same hospital.”
Aboluwoye said the command got a report of the fire around 11.30am and dispatched its operatives to the scene.
He said, “This morning (Thursday) around 11.30am, we got an emergency call that a filling station caught fire in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta
“Our officers and men quickly went there. On getting there, we found out that the incident was caused by a welder trying to weld very close to a gas filling plant. And very close to that place, you can see a generator, which caught fire. Since we know that fire is just like a magnet, all the nearby shops and a filling station were gutted by fire.
“A motorcycle and another vehicle were also affected.
“Presently, we have two dead casualities while seven people were seriously injured.”
Source :punch
