A tanker on Tuesday exploded at the Outer Marina area of Lagos State thereby causing panic in the area.
The incident was said to have happened around 11am not too far from the State House in the Marina area of the state.
A combined team of emergency responders from the Lagos State Fire Service, Federal Fire Service and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency were at the scene of the incident to put out the fire.
Police and military officers were also sighted at the location as some of them were controlling the crowd.
An eyewitness, who gave his name only as Kingsley, said the incident happened near the NIWA Jetty.
He said, “Some people were transferring gasoline into the tanker near the NIWA jetty around 11am. It was not too long before I heard an explosion.
“I do not know if it was an illegal job that was going on there, but I discovered that some military officers were the first set of people to arrive at the location before the fire service.”
The Director, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, said a diesel-laden truck was fuelling some marine fleets along the corridor when it erupted in fire.
Adeseye, in a statement, said the fire service was alerted at 11.50am, while Ebute Elefun and Sari-Iganmu fire stations arrived at the scene around 12.01pm to stop the spread of the fire before it posed any threat to the blue line rail bridge.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that a peddler truck of about 15,000 litres diesel fuelling some marine fleets along the corridor erupted in fire and contained with complimentary efforts of the Federal Fire Service, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Red Cross, Nigerian Police and Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps.
“The mitigation saved facilities around the area except for the tanker which was burnt and a stationed 40 feet empty container partially affected by the radiation of the fire.
“The fire was eventually put out at 1.20pm without any trace of death or injury whereas the driver and assistant were nowhere in sight,” the statement added.
However, the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, in his reaction to the incident, said the fire at Marina started from the generator of the Blue Rail Mass Transit.
“Police patrol teams and the Fire Service are already on the ground to control the crowd and put out the fire respectively. People are urged to go about their lawful duties and not panic as the situation is under control. An investigation will reveal what actually happened. The fire has been successfully put out,” he added.
Contacted, the Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotosho, said the fire did not affect the Blue Rail Mass Transit of the state government.
He said, “It was an agency that was trying to transload HBO from one vessel into another using generator to power it. So the generator caught fire and affected the vessel. So, it did not affect the Marina station of the Blue Rail Transit.”
When contacted, the Deputy Director of Public Relations, 81 Division, Nigerian Army, Lt Col. Olabisi Ayeni, said he was not aware of the incident.
“I am not aware of the incident and I am not sure it was our officers that were seen at the location. I will find and get back to you,” he said.
He had yet to do so as of the time this report was filed.
