29th July, 2011
Following yesterday’s petrol tanker fire outbreak that engulfed the Enugu prison barracks and the central police station, razing 15 houses, Enugu State Governor Sulivan Chime has ordered the immediate demolition of illegal structures in Enugu, the state capital.
The state fire service men claimed that the structures hindered their vehicles from entering the barracks to put out the inferno yesterday.
The governor gave the demolition order through the Deputy Governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi who visited the scene yesterday after the fire outbreak.
The governor commiserated with the families of the victims who lost their loved ones and traders who lost their wares at the Ogbete main market.
He pleaded that the state government would decide how it would come to the aid of the victims.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the petrol tanker truck has been removed from the scene of the accident.
P.M.NEWS reliably gathered this morning that the driver of the fuel tanker is now in police custody. He had escaped immediately the incident happened but was later arrested by the police.
Eyewitnesses blamed the accident on the high speed of the truck and because of that, the driver could not easily turn at the roundabout.
He lost control of the vehicle and crashed it. This resulted in a fire outbreak as the 33,000 litres of petrol he was conveying spilled all over and flowed into the prison barracks and part of the Ogbete Main market. At least six persons died.
Victims who lost houses and other properties to the fire are pleading for assistance. While many have been rendered homeless, others lost all their goods and vital documents including certificates to the fire.
They called on the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, to come to their aid.
Security agents including the police, civil defence corps and others cordoned off the affected areas when P.M.NEWS visited the accident scene this morning.
—Jude Orji/Enugu