The loading bay of the Ibadan depot of the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), a subsidiary of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Apata area of Ibadan, Oyo State was yesterday razed by fire, leaving seven persons injured.
The development caused severe gridlock on the Apata-Abeokuta Road, as men of the State Fire Service battled to put off the fire. A section of the loading point was completely damaged by fire, while three petrol tankers were also burnt.
One of the persons injured, simply identified as Moji, was caught in the raging fire, sustaining severe burns. Activities at the depot have been suspended forthwith, as the usual loading of fuel has been shut down.
There was pandemonium when people around the depot, including the workers saw billows of fire, causing many to scale the fence and run helter-skelter to avoid been caught by the fire.
The immediate cause of the inferno could not be ascertained, but a driver of one of the affected tankers, who would not want his name in print, said it was caused by one of the tanker drivers at the loading point.
He said: “I was there when one of the tanker drivers was removing his battery and using another truck’s battery to kick-start his truck. It was when he put the battery and was hitting the head of the battery, trying to fix it that fire sparked from the battery and the next thing we saw was an explosion.”
Confirming the outbreak, the corporation said the fire was caused by some fuel trucks at the depot. NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, assured that loading of petroleum products would resume in the depot in a few hours, highlighting that the incident would not disrupt steady petroleum products supply in Ibadan and its environs.
He further enjoined motorists not to engage in panic buying of petroleum products.
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