Lagos tanker explosion: It was like war – Survivors

Survivors of the tanker explosion which occurred in Lagos in the late hours of Thursday, really have a testimony to tell as they recounted the sad experience.

A 41-year-old driver whose commercial bus was directly behind the ill-fated tanker laden with around 33, 000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit , stated that moment brought a glimpse of perhaps what the end of the world would look like.

The Ile-Ife indigene disclosed that he was briefly knocked out by the sound of the explosion, but managed to regain consciousness and enough strength to force his way out of the bus through the front passenger seat. But even after exiting the vehicle, his fears were far from over.

“I jumped into a gutter full of dirty water immediately I forced my way out of the bus,” he said, slowly adjusting his sitting position on the bed. “I had hoped to use the water to quench the fire on my body but unknown to me the water had already mixed with the petrol that had spilled from the tanker. That compounded my problem. While I was struggling to quench the fire on my body, I did not know that my head was burning. I managed to run across the road and into an uncompleted building where people around helped me put out the fire. That was my saving grace, otherwise only God knows what would have happened to me,” he stated.

The wife of the commercial bus driver, Faidat who also spoke to Saturday PUNCH, disclosed that they had expended almost all the money on them in trying to save her husband’s life.

“This tragedy has completely changed our life as a family,” she began. “The thought of him lying in the hospital and battling for survival has left us restless.
“My husband usually does not go out on Thursdays. No matter how much you offer him, he would not go to work on that day. But he went out to work that day because he was arrested by LASTMA operatives on Monday and he used all the money he realised to settle them. He had no money on him and that was why he decided to go out on Thursday to work.

Mr. Wasiu Amoo, another victim of the Lagos tanker explosion incident, who lost his wife and best friend of several decades about three years ago, was heading home that evening when the commercial bus he boarded was caught up in the tragedy.

While other younger passengers managed to escape with minor burns and injuries after the tanker explosion, Amoo, perhaps due to age, couldn’t summon a similar swiftness. By the time he managed to drag himself to safety, there had been significant damage done to his aging body. He hangs precariously unto life at the Lagos hospital.

“Large parts of his body were severely burnt in the tanker explosion,” the 68-year-old’s daughter and fifth child, Aminat told Saturday PUNCH during an encounter on Friday. “He has not been able to open his eyes since that incident. Initially, he was not able to talk but after oxygen was administered on him on Friday morning, he had been talking gradually.

“Also, since that incident, he had not been able to urinate on his own; the nurses have been using a device to assist him to do that. He has been complaining of pains.

“We are praying to God to preserve his life. He is a good father; we cannot afford to lose him now. Since we lost our mother three years ago, he has been playing both roles for us. We beg God to spare his life,” she said.

Mr. Seun Solarin, an official of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos who also escaped death by mere inches after the tanker explosion, was returning home from work with three colleagues and a few others in a Mitsubishi space wagon that fateful evening. According to him, he was rushing to watch the ongoing FIFA World Cup taking place in Russia, before things took a different turn.

“If anybody told me I’d still be alive by now, I would doubt it,” he said, still looking frightened. “I saw it; I was there, in front of a huge fire, in front of death. I was sitting beside the driver, Williams, my colleague when everything happened. I thought war had broken out. I was afraid that life had come to an end.

“Before the incident, I and Williams noticed how the tanker was manoeuvring anyhow. The tanker driver was waving at other vehicles behind not to come close. As it approached Oando Filling Station, there was traffic and the driver decided not to move forward again. As he tilted the tanker towards the culvert in the middle of the road so that it would stop, the tanker started descending. One of the motor boys quickly disembarked and started throwing a big wood in front of the tyre to stop it. But the tanker climbed a stone and fell. Fuel started gushing out but the others said it was diesel and that it wouldn’t explode.

“But something told me that even if it was diesel, we were supposed to run for safety. So, I asked everyone in the car to run. I had not run up to 100 metres before the tanker exploded. It was like a bomb exploding in a war. I didn’t look back again until I reached Isheri.

“Williams and another colleague, called Aunty Maria are still missing. Another colleague inside the car who managed to escape had his scalp seriously burnt. I pray not to witness anything like this in my life again,” he said as he battled tears.