Tanker explodes, kills taxi driver,‎ burn five vehicles‎ along East-West road

A petrol tanker on Thursday exploded along the Mbiama area of Rivers State, the East-West Road axis, causing an inferno that killed a taxi driver.

The raging inferno also burnt at least five vehicles in the incident.

The Incident, which occurred at about 5pm on Wednesday led to heavy traffic gridlock with travellers stranded along the East-West road.

Our correspondent gathered that three of the burnt vehicles were damaged beyond recognition while two were burnt partially.

The Bayelsa State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr. Ikechukwu Igwe, reportedly deployed his officials in the area to ensure free-flow of traffic along the busy road.

Sources said the driver lost control of the tanker after discharging fuel in one of the filling stations.

One of the sources, who spoke in confidence, said: “The tanker fell shortly after coming out of the filling station. It did not discharge all the products in that filling station. The rest of the product spilled on the road.

“We later heard a bang and fire followed it immediately. It caused panic in the area but the immediate presence of FRSC officials brought the situation under control. The officials were there till about 11pm to control traffic”.

Igwe, who visited the area yesterday morning, said only a taxi driver died in the incident and sympathised with persons whose vehicles were burnt.

He said instead of fleeing the scene after the tanker collapsed, the taxi driver, opened the bonnet of his vehicle and attempted to disconnect his battery.

He said in the process of trying to remove his vehicle’s battery, a spark occurred and caused the explosion.

He said: “The driver just discharged fuel at Lionman Filling Station but as he was going out, the tanker fell. The taxi man that died in the incident came out and discovered that there was no road because other drivers abandoned their vehicles and fled the area.

“The man decided to disconnect his vehicle’s battery and there was a spark because the remaining fuel from the tanker had spilled on the road. The spark caused the fire that killed the taxi driver and burnt five vehicles.”

Igwe said his command was making an arrangement to bring a towing truck to remove the tanker that fell across the road, adding that firefighters were able to put out the fire.

Akam James, Yenagoa