Trouble started on Friday 4th March 2021, when an unidentified vehicle which was overtaking the tanker scratched it by the side while on high speed on the Asaba-Agbor expressway.
It was learnt that the tanker driver while trying to avoid the smaller vehicle, lost control, causing the tanker to fall just as it was learnt that the driver and his boy disappeared as they were not found after the accident.
It was reliably gathered that immediately the tanker fell, it generated a lot of dust in the area, making it difficult for onlookers and passersby to see their next neighbour before it went aflame.
The inferno immediately spread to a residential building close to the spot the tanker fell and consumed it completely.
Good Samaritans who were aware of an Hausa man resident in the building, Saliu Muhammed from Maiduguri, Borno State, who was fast asleep, rescued him unhurt from the inferno before it ranged wide, beyond control.
The fire swiftly moved to a nearby duplex but private water tankers driving past the accident quickly moved in to put off the fire but not without ruining a portion of the duplex.
Speaking with The Story, on Tuesday 9th March 2021, the survivor, Saliu Muhammed, narrated his ordeal: “this tanker was coming from Asaba to Agbor. One car was trying to overtake the tanker when the tanker driver was trying to dulge the car and it fell.
“As soon as it fell, the fire enveloped the tanker making it to exploded, the fire spread to the building directly where it fell on and it crossed to the building where I am seating now and spread to the other building by the other side.
“But nobody died. It happened on Friday evening. I couldn’t pick anything from my apartment. What I am wearing now was what I was sleeping on when the incident occurred, I woke up to see fire but people rescued me.
Asked whether the State fire service were contacted, Muhammed said: “They didn’t come when the fire was on, it has consumed the entire compound and people were already battling with the fire on the other buildings when they arrived”, he narrated.
An eyewitness who simply identified herself as Mrs. Ndudi, said: “I was coming from the opposite direction and this my neighbour’s children were going close to the road. I then asked them to know where they were going.
“I asked them to wait, so they were playing with me while waiting. The tanker was coming from Asaba to Agbor, what we heard was a loud sound of a vehicle that fell close to us. As it fell, dust covered everywhere.
“The next thing we saw, was fire. My neighbour’s children were running and I joined them but as I was running, the fire was following me behind, I don’t know where I and my neighbour’s children were. I was just praying God to help me and the fire was on before it burnt the entire house but no life was lost.
Aligning with Muhammed, Mrs. Ndudi said: “Fire Service personnel arrived late. Something that started about 3:00pm, they came about 6:00pm. We were angry and we started stoning them for coming late. It is only private tankers doing their commercial water businesses that came to assist.
“That is why the duplex and our building were not that affected before fire service came. We called Agbor, they said their fire truck was bad, we called Onicha-Ugbo, they said they have no gas. It was Asaba, fire service officers that came at last”, she stated.
