Explosion, multiple fire outbreaks in Port Harcourt
There
was tension in Port Harcourt on Friday as residents of the Rivers State
capital witnessed a cocktail of fire incidents in four different
locations.
While residents around Abuloma Jetty were
jolted by the explosion of a vessel that claimed the lives of at least
30 persons, workers of Rivers State Newspaper Corporation lost property
worth millions of naira as fire gutted the second floor of The Tide Newspaper building located on Ikwerre Road.
Also, the Engineering Department of a Port Harcourt-based radio station, Rhythm FM, was razed by an early morning fire that had made the station to go off air.
At Eneka, operatives of the Joint Military
Task Force codenamed ‘Operation Pulo Shield’ set fire to five tankers
loaded with illegally refined oil, completing the blend of fire
incidents in Port Harcourt in a day.
On the explosion of a vessel at the Abuloma
Jetty, it was gathered that the occupants of the ship, excluding three
persons who escaped, were dead.
An eyewitness, who identified himself as Gideon, told SATURDAY PUNCH that
members of the crew, some ladies suspected to be students of tertiary
institutions in Port Harcourt, were among those who lost their lives in
the explosion.
The ladies, according to Gideon, were on
their way to spend the weekend with their friends and relatives offshore
before they met their untimely death.
A resident of Abuloma, Mr. Jame Israel, who
witnessed the incident, said the blast occurred about 9.30 am as a
result of the maintenance work being carried out in the vessel by
welders.
“The welders were trying to seal an opening
to block a leakage on the deck of the vessel’s fuel tank and in the
process, the vessel exploded. The welders died, but we cannot ascertain
how many people died inside the vessel,” Israel added.
Another eyewitness, who identified himself
as Ifeanyi, said the explosion threw one of the welders above the vessel
before he (welder) landed into the fire that sent a heavy smoke into
the air.
“I saw it; the impact of the explosion
pushed one of the person suspected to be the welder very high before he
landed back into the fire. The explosion caused the buildings around
this place to vibrate.
“When we heard the sound, we initially
thought it was a bomb blast from a terrorist group. But we later learnt
that the explosion occurred as a result of the welding work being done
in the ship,” Ifeanyi said.
The Rivers State Commander of the Federal
Road Safety Commission, Kayode Olagunju, said, “An oil vessel around
9.45 hours caught fire and exploded at the Abuloma Waterfront in Port
Harcourt.
“The fire is still restricted to water
areas. FRSC, NEMA, police, fire service and other rescue agencies are on
the ground. Casualty figure is not yet known. We shall keep you
posted.”
The state Coordinator of the National
Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Emenike Umesi, said the agency did not
get any casualty figure.
Umesi told SATURDAY PUNCH that it was not certain if people were trapped in the vessel, promising that figures of casualties would soon be released.
At The Tide office, the editor of
the paper, Mr. Soye Jamabo, said fire gutted the second floor of the
building about 2 am, destroying vital documents.
Jamabo added that fire fighters across the
road tried to put out the fire to no avail as their pipe was not long
enough to get to the second floor of the building.
Similarly, the state Chairman of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Okpaka Dokubo, explained that the
state-owned fire service officials were helpless as their equipment
failed them at a critical time.
“The fire fighters came, but their
equipment were ineffective. Their water pipe could not go beyond the
first floor of the building. If not for the intervention of fire
fighters from Total, the entire building would have been razed,” Okpaka
stated.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who visited Tide, was said to have directed workers to go home pending when they would get instructions from the government.
In another development, JTF operatives had
set five tankers loaded with suspected illegally refined oil on fire in
Atali on Rumuokwurusi-Igwuruta Road.
The JTF troop had impounded the five
tankers within the area in the night and had directed that they should
be driven to the bush where they were set ablaze.
It was gathered that the JTF ignored entreaties from residents that buildings around the area could be affected by the fire.
Spokesperson for the JTF, Operation Pulo
Shield, Capt. Sunday Samuel, said the tankers were involved in illegal
bunkering, adding that the mandate of the JTF was to destroy products
seized from illegal bunkerers.
Samuel stated that six persons were
arrested in the process of impounding the tankers, adding that the
suspects would soon be handed over to appropriate authorities for
further investigation and prosecution.
