Tanker fire rocks petrol station in Kwara

By SAKA Laaro, Ilorin

Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has prevented a raging inferno occasioned by a tanker explosion from spreading to nearby residential buildings in Alapa, a suburb of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Monday evening.

The public relations officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Kwara State Babawale Zaid Afolabi disclosed this to newsmen in Ilorin on Tuesday adding that the tanker was trying to offload a petroleum  motor spirit (pms) at a popular filling station inside the town when it suddenly went up in flame.

“We got a distress call around 1830 hours on Monday evening that a fuel laden truck has exploded inside a filling station and our officers at a nearby outpost in the town rushed down to the scene of the incident to assist in managing the situation,” Babawale disclosed.

He started further that men of the fire service  have been contacted and were already on ground to contain the raging inferno from spreading to the residential buildings around the location of the filling station.

“The timely intervention of the NSCDC and the fire service who responded swiftly to the distress call prevented the fire from spreading to other buildings around the filling station and as at the time of filing this report the fire has been put under control,” the CDPRO added.

“No life was reportedly lost in the incident though the filling station was badly affected,” he said.