Another Tanker Explosion Leaves Many Critically Injured In Lagos

By Our Correspondent

Residents of the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos were on Thursday afternoon sent into a panic as a rancorous explosion rocked the neighborhood.

What started out as a wet and rather calm day quickly turned into a frenzy at about 3:30 pm when a loaded gas tanker exploded around the Iju Hill axis of Ajuwon road.

Some witnesses say at least one person died in the blast that comes at a moment when the nation is trying to come to terms with a similar carnage that left almost 30 including students, dead in Lokoja.

The incident in Lagos left 16 persons critically injured, while scores of buildings and many cars were destroyed, some beyond repair.

A Damaged Tanker?

Speaking to our Correspondent on Thursday at the site of the explosion, LASEMA’s Director of Operations, Engr Olatunde Akinsanya said the 16 injured persons were taken to the Iju Water Works clinic.

Akinsanya revealed that the ill-fated 30 ton LPG tanker which was being operated by Manna Gas Ltd, was supposed to offload its content at a gas station, but the station’s owner reportedly refused to allow him because a seal had been broken, indicating that the content had been tampered with.

Enraged by the refusal of the station manager to offload the content in his tanker, the driver moved out of the premises.

A few meters away from the gas station, the front tire of the tanker burst and the gearbox compartment struck the ground causing a spark that led to an explosion when it came in contact with gas that was leaking from the tanker.

The vehicle ended in a ditch, where a second explosion erupted.

Eyewitnesses said that the second explosion sent the tanker flying and destroying buildings in its path, including a church.

The impact of the explosion spread about 300 radii from the scene of the incident, the LASEMA official said.

It was not yet clear at the time of reporting this story whether the driver of the tanker was still alive as he seemed to have sustained third-degree burns.

“I would have died with my children”

Narrating her close shave with death, Mrs. Maduka Lovelyn, a fruit seller said she had just returned from the market and was arranging her wares when the first blast erupted.

Mrs. Maduka and her kids were attending to customers when they saw a thick cloud of smoke rising a few meters from where her stall is situated.

The perturbed mother said she and her children were lucky to have escaped because they fled at the first cry of “fire! fire!” by some other residents who were closer to the blast spot.

“We were scared as we saw the smoke, it was too much,” Mrs. Maduka stressed as she revealed how it took a race through marsh and mud to get her family to safety.