Twelve vehicles and four houses were consumed in an early Saturday inferno at Ojuelegba area of Lagos State, when a tanker, fully loaded with petrol, went up in flames
.
The explosion, which occurred around 5am, resulted in serious traffic gridlock till the afternoon, as emergency and traffic officials battled to evacuate the burnt trailer and vehicles.
The cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, but residents of the area blamed the accident on over-speeding by the tanker driver.
Residents of the area also told the Sunday Tribune that the explosion occured two hours after the tanker had fallen from the bridge.
The tanker fell from the bridge and emptied its contents on the road and in a drainage by the road side, before the explosion started .
Most of the affected buses were parked under the Ojuelegba Bridge, while a few others, which were parked by the roadside, also got burnt.
It was gathered that the tanker, with the inscription of a major oil company on it, was on the Ojuelegba Bridge, when the driver suddenly lost total control.
The driver in an attempt to regain the control of the traiker crashed into the side of the bridge, resulting in the tanker falling off the bridge .
Fire fighters arrived at the scene and were trying to neutralise the effect of the petrol, when an explosion suddenly occurred.
Four houses and twelve buses were burnt, before a combined team of fire fighters from the Federal Fire Service and the Lagos State Fire Service could finally curtail the rampaging fire
Ibrahim Fatinloye, the South-West spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the incident to the Sunday Tribune but insisted that no casualty was recorded in the accident.
See more photos
below
