Fire razes 10 vehicles on Badagry expressway

An early morning inferno yesterday razed 10 vehicles and other property worth millions of naira at the Ojo Barracks bus stop, on the Mile 2-Badagary expressway. An eyewitness told newsmen that the fire started at about 5am, many hours after an articulated vehicle laden with petrol had collided with a Volkswagen Vanagon bus carrying electrical […]

An early morning inferno yesterday razed 10 vehicles and other property worth millions of naira at the Ojo Barracks bus stop, on the Mile 2-Badagary expressway.

An eyewitness told newsmen that the fire started at about 5am, many hours after an articulated vehicle laden with petrol had collided with a Volkswagen Vanagon bus carrying electrical equipment.

According to the eyewitness, fuel from the tanker flowed down the road through the drainage to a dump near the bus stop.

The source said that the accident involving the tanker and the bus had occurred about 9pm on Monday, and a combined team of officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the state Fire Service and the police quickly removed the two vehicles.

A commercial bus driver, Taiwo Kadiri, said many vehicles were trapped in the blaze as a result of the deep gully in the middle of the road.

“One of the affected vehicles had so many goods worth millions of naira in it. The driver and one other person in the bus escaped unhurt when they realised they could not manoeuvre their way out,” Kadiri said.

Another commercial bus driver, Emeka Chidi, said he escaped with his vehicle by the whiskers.

“Everything happened so fast. I was on my way to Mile 2 with some passengers when the fire started. I have never seen such a thing before. The fire started from the drainage and quickly spread to some vehicles that were trying to pass through the numerous potholes.

“There was nothing anyone could do. All the burnt vehicles started bursting into flame one after the other like it was a planned attack,” he said.

The General Manager of LASEMA, Mr Adesina Tiamiyu, said that the agency, with some other government agencies, had moved promptly to remove the tanker and the bus carrying electrical appliances which had collided.

Tiamiyu said, “But the tanker’s rear compartment had been punctured, resulting in the spilling of its contents into the environs. The combined Response Team began made efforts to curtail further spillage of the petrol into the environs of the incident scene.”

He further stated that during the recovery process, the spilled content ignited fire that travelled back to the accident scene, resulting in the burning of three buses, one car and six trucks.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, confirmed no life was lost to the fire incident neither was anybody injured.