Fire has destroyed a petrol station belonging to the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Uche Ogah.
The filling station, Masters Energy, is located on the busy Aba Road in Umuahia North Local Government of Abia State.
The inferno caused pandemonium on the major road, forcing vehicular movements to be diverted to other exit routes, to prevent further escalation or damages to other adjoining properties and vehicles plying the road.
Nobody died in the fire that engulfed a petroleum tanker discharging content at the petrol station.
The acting Comptroller of Abia Fire Service, Mr. Arua Nnanna, in a phone interview, said the tanker was discharging 43,000 litres PMS (Petroleum Motor Spirit) into the filling station’s dump when it went up in flames.
He said the fire was caused by a generator being used to transfer the PMS from the tanker to the dump.
“From the information we got, the generator they used to transfer PMS from the tanker to the dump caught fire.
“They couldn’t contain the fire. We were called and the state and federal government firefighters swung into action to contain the fire.
“Part of the filing station was affected, but the good story is that nobody died. We saved property worth millions of naira because if we had not come, the damage on adjoining buildings would have been huge,” Nnanna said.
He urged petroleum station owners to ensure that they equipped their facilities with fire extinguishers, adding that they should also ensure that fire service personnel were within their facilities any time they discharged petroleum products in their facilities, to prevent recurrence.
The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Anthony Agbazuere, among others, were around to ensure that the fire was put out.