Another tanker laden with petroleum motor spirit, PMS fell into a drainage yesterday near Saint Patrick Cathedral, along Zik Avenue, Awka, Awka South Local Government area.
It was gathered that the incident which recorded no casualty happened in the early hours of the day when the tanker tried to make a turn to discharge its contents in a nearby Filling Station.
This makes it the fifth petrol laden tanker that has fallen in the state within a short period of time.
While two caught fire, killed some persons and destroyed properties worth billions of naira, three others received quick intervention of the Fire Service.
An eye witness who spoke on condition of anonymity said a heavy duty vehicle in the early hours of the day which probably had a break failure hit the parked petroleum tanker and forced it to roll into the drainage system and spilled it’s content on the ground, but did not ignite fire.
She said that police personnel were quickly alerted and they promptly cordoned off that part of the road, restricting movement, while some men of the Anambra State Fire service were on ground subduing the substance from igniting fire, while the Nigeria Security and Civil Service Corps and the State Emergency Management Agency helped to restrict the residents from scooping the petrol.
The Anambra State Firefighters led by the State Director of the Agency, Engineer Martin Agbili said that he and his men were at the scene of the accident for control measures with chemical form compound to neutralize it to avert fire disaster.
He said that on enquiry, it was gathered that the tanker has discharged three chambers of the truck to the underground tank in a petrol station and packed outside ready to head to another Filling Station for discharge before it started rolling down on its own.
Mr Agbili assured Ndi Anambra that there won’t be any fire from the scene.
While thanking God that no live was lost to the incident, the Transition Committee Chairman of Awka South Local Government Area, Mr.
Leo Nwuba decried the attitudes of residents in scooping products from fallen tankers which he said is a risky move capable of taking one’s life and commended the efforts of all agencies that contained the incident from exploding in the area.
The Federal Road Safety Corps were seen trying to tow the tanker out of the area after discharging the petroleum products to ensure normalcy and vehicular movement in the area.
Comments are closed for this post.