No fewer than two people have been reported dead following a morning fire outbreak at Chibyno filling station along Alaoji-Ikot-Ekpene Road in Obingwa local government area of Abia state.
According to sources who were at the scene of the incident, about five trucks were burnt in the Wednesday morning inferno.
A witness who lives in the area said he was awakened by calls around 5:00 a.m. to come to the station.
“The filling station had four trucks which were discharging fuel at the same time. We learnt that there was a little spark from the generating set they were using to pump the fuel into their tank, which resulted in an explosion,” he narrated.
Confirming the incident, Zonal commander of Aba Fire Service, Belenta Belenta, told journalists that he suspected that the victims were involved in oil bunkering, which might have informed the discharging of petroleum products at the station in the wee hours of the day.
Mr. Belenta said that men of the state fire service were deployed to the scene immediately they got the information where they employed all tactics to quench the fire.
He add that the police had taken one of the accident victims who died immediately to the mortuary while the other victim rushed to the hospital was later pronounced dead.
