A filling station belonging to a petroleum product marketing company, Master Energy located along Aba-Owerri road in Umuahia, Abia State has been gutted by fire, ABN TV reports.
Though the cause of the fire incident is yet to be fully ascertained, the Ag. Director Abia State Fire Service, Mr. Arua said it started while a tanker was offloading the product.
He told ABN TV that an explosion occurred which he said may be due to the unprofessional conduct of those discharging the product.
As at the time of filing this report, the fire was still raging even as men of the State Fire Service battled to contain the inferno.
The petroleum marketing company is owned by the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Uchechukwu Samson Ogah.
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.
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.
Also, 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.
More details later…
