Fire Disaster: Petrol tanker explosion in Ibadan, Death toll rises to 13

A filled up petrol tanker fell and exploded around the popular Molete Market area of Ibadan on Saturday night, killing up to 13 people and leaving several others with varying degrees of burns and injuries.

The scene..Photo credit: Punch/Olufemi Atoyebi

More than 45 shops were burnt while witnesses also say that no fewer than 17 vehicles were burnt beyond repairs so were motorcycles, tricycles and goods worth millions of Naira. Most of the casualties were roadside traders.

Eyewitnesses said the fire started when the petrol tanker fell at the busy Molete roundabout and burst in flames moments after.

The owner of a pharmacy store, Chigozie Eze, whose store was consumed by the fire, narrated to Punch how it started.

He said, “The driver was trying to steer the vehicle away from a pothole at the roundabout and at the same time making attempts not to collide with the commercial buses at the area when it fell. The content spilled and exploded. My brother and another person escaped through the back door but we lost everything.

“I had more than N400,000 in the shop but it was burnt to ashes. A customer who just bought drugs was caught in the fire, he died immediately. I don’t know where to start again.”

A customer of Eze, who had just left the store as at the time of the incident, was killed in the fire.
Eleven people had died at the scene of the incident while two died at separate times in the University College Hospital (UCH). An eight year-old girl was among the victims of the fire incident.

A 65-year-old retired school principal, Mr. Adewuyi Ajani (65), who had lived all his life in the neighborhood was reported by DailyPost as saying that it was the fifth time that such an incident would occur, with the first incident dating as far back as August 23, 1971. He stated that before Saturday’s tragedy, three other similar incidents happened in 1975, 1987 and 1994.

The Oyo State Government has visited  the scene where he commiserated with families of victims  and all those affected.