Three persons, comprising two tenants of a nearby property and a LPG Truck Driver, were reportedly burnt to death on Saturday when a gas plant located within the premises of Onochie Nnanna Nigeria Limited went up in flames at Nkwelle-Ezunka in Oyi local council of Anambra State.

Two houses close to the gas plant, including personal belongings of the tenants, were also burnt to ashes. Two of the victims have been identified as Malam Nuhu, the driver of the A.A. Rano LPG Truck and one other Ezenwoke Nwigwe, who hailed from Ikeala Ngwa in Abia State and said to have recently completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Ibadan, Oyo State and was residing with his sister in the area.

How it happened:

Several eyewitness reports have it that the explosion occurred while an LPG Tanker belonging to a major player in both the downstream and upstream segments of the Oil and Gas Industry, A.A. Rano, was discharging products at the station. Internal sources revealed that while the truck was discharging its product, an overflow occurred, leading to a burst pipe and product spillage into the atmosphere. Desperate attempts to steer away the fully-loaded truck from what was then an impending disaster however met with failure when the exhaust sparks from a nearby ‘Okada’ ignited the gas-filled atmosphere.

A security man at the gas station, Mr. Harrison Alphonsus, from Adamawa State and the manager of the station, Mr. Tony Nwokonko, said the explosion caught one of the victims (Nwigwe) when he joined the rescue operation to put out the fire.

According to them, the victims were rushed to the Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu where they were confirmed dead, while the injured ones are currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.

The landlord of the burnt houses, Chief Nnamdi Okafor, said he would have lost his entire family to the fire, but for divine intervention. He, however, praised the men from the Okpoko Fire Service in Onitsha, who brought the situation under control, adding, however, that the fire destroyed everything he had before help came.

“The fire incident has crippled me. Everything I have has been lost, but what pains me most is the loss of my two tenants”, he said.

On his part, the owner of the gas station, Onochie Nwokike, said what happened to him was enough for anybody to commit suicide.

Fortunately enough, the LPG Tanker that still had most of its products intact did not explode. Had that happened, probably a repeat of the devastating gas explosion that occurred at Chikason Group of Industries on Christmas Eve in 2015 which claimed about 100 lives in the Nnewi industrial town of Anambra State would most likely have been inevitable.

See pictures of the devastation below:

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