Filling Station Razed In Abia

A Petrol station, Okozak, at Uzuakoli in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State was yesterday gutted by fire which consumed goods and properties worth millions of naira.

However, no life was lost in the fire disaster that consumed the station and a bus that was refueling.
The incident reportedly occurred when a 33,000 litre tanker truck was discharging petrol at the station.
The driver of the truck marked XE888AKL, Stephen Ogbuji, who lamented the incident described it “a mysterious one”.
Ogbuji said he suddenly discovered there was fire while discharging the petrol product.
He said: “I had connected the hose to the underground tank to commence the discharge of petrol and in less than three minutes there was fire from nowhere. I used my fire extinguisher with that of the filling station to try and put it out to no avail.
“The engine of the truck was not on and there was no fire around, no matches and no commercial motorcycle. So, I am still wondering how the fire started.
“This type of thing has never happened to me since my 16 years of being an oil tanker driver.”
In his reaction, station manager, Chinedu Uwalekwu, commended the people of Uzuakoli for their timely intervention, saying the fire would have escalated beyond the station if they had no come to the rescue.
According to him, the fire will have taken a bigger dimension if he had not removed the hose when he noticed the fire, as the underground tank was open.
He bemoaned the attitude of fire fighters in Umuahia who refused to heed distress call.
His words: “When the fire started we immediately got in touch with the fire service in Umuahia the state capital, but they complained that they have no driver to drive their truck, yet they come here every year to collect their annual levy from us.”