Richard Ginika Izuora
The Director General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu has blamed the petrol station fire in the state on lack of adequate safety measures by its operator.
According to him, the petrol station owners did not put enough safety measures in place, adding that the tanker was trying to transload its content when the fire broke out.
Oke-Osanyintolu lamented that it took them 30 minutes to get the crowd under control before they could work.
“This incident is due to the fact that this tanker which has a capacity of about 50,000 was trying to transload its content at the petrol station. The uniqueness about this particular incident is that we have a gas plant just nearby, people are selling things at this story building and there’s a car shop beside the petrol station
Over thirty vehicles parked at a car shop including two buildings were affected by the Monday fire.
Eight of the vehicles were burnt beyond repair.
Two buildings were also partially affected by the inferno which started around 1pm while a 50,000 capacity tanker was discharging Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at the filling station.
It was gathered that there was a spark during the PMS offload, triggering a fire and an explosion.
The fire reportedly escalated because the petrol station owners did not call emergency workers on time and tried to put it out with their fire extinguisher.