Two burnt to death, three injured in Ogun tanker fire
Two persons have been burnt to death and three others injured in a predawn accident that occurred on Thursday when a tanker laden with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) caught fire in the Sango Ota area of Ogun State.
The accident occurred around 0130 AM hours as the tanker was labouring to ascend a hilly section of the Ilo Awele slope adjoining the Abeokuta – Lagos stretch of the expressway but rolled backwards, fell and burst into flame.
A total of 12 vehicles along its track were affected, including three luxury buses, four tricycles, three motorcycles, a bus and a tanker.
Three persons were rescued to Otta General Hospital – the three were gravely burnt while two charred bodies were evacuated from the scene by operatives of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
The Superintendent Route Commander and Public Education Officer for Sector Commander Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC) Ogun Sector Command, Florence Okpe, attributed the cause of the accident to “mechanical fault.”
“The suspected cause of the multiple crashes was mechanical deficiency while ascending the vehicle rolled back and got hooked. The content spilt off and there was a fire outbreak,” she stated.
Okpe in a release on behalf of the Sector Commander, Umar Ahmed, said that operatives of the Fire Service had been contacted and the scene cordoned off to avert a secondary accident.
