Victims of the fire accident, caused by a petrol tanker accident at Iyana- Ipaja, a suburb of Lagos, on Tuesday are still in anguish. More than 24 hours after the incident, some of them are yet to come to terms with the fact all that they laboured for, for so many years, is gone. GBENGA ADERANTI & SEGUN AJIBOYE were at the scene of the accident.
LIFE for 34-year-old Emmanuel Chinedu is at present on ground zero. Anambra State-born Chinedu is one of the victims of Tuesday’s early morning petroleum tanker fire disaster in the Iyana-Ipaja area of Lagos.
More than 24 hours after the ugly incident when The Nation visited, smoke still billowed from the ruins of the Chinedu’s shop. The investment which took him close to a decade struggle to establish, evaporated into the afternoon sky, taking with it the young man’s hope of a rosy future.
Unfortunately, Chinedu had been through this unkind path before. As a little boy, he was apprenticed to a master who he served for 10 years. But just when he was to be set up by his master, trouble came knocking on the master’s doors, taking away with it Chinedu’s 10 years of labour.
“I have lost all my life savings to the fire. Life is very unkind to me. You see, I served my master for 10 years and when he was to set me up, he ran into problems, and so could not set me up,” Chinedu lamented with tears streaming down his cheeks. Rather than give up, he took to the street, selling ware under the Iyana Ipaja overhead bridge. Five years after, Chinedu’s struggle was rewarded when he saved enough money to rent a shop where he sold cosmetic products.
Happy with his achievements, Chinedu took his longtime lover as wife in April. But the disaster has, at least for the moment, once again crashed his dream. “I just received some goods from the people that supply me from China. The shop was fully stocked with a variety of cosmetic products. I lost about N15 million. I don’t know where to start from again. I just got married in April. And my wife does not do anything. Where do I go from here?”
If Chinedu is confused over what action to take, 67-year-old Pa Aremu Taoreed Koleosho seemed relaxed watching the smoke from the ruins of his building. Life had thrown several challenges at him in the past, and the fire disaster, he said was just one of them.
“I have seen many things in life, but I must confess that this one jolted me.” But with the wisdom that comes with age, while others cried, lamenting their losses, Pa Koleosho sat on his reclining chair, dressed in snow-white attire. “With my age, I have seen a lot of challenges in life. So, when some things like this one happen to a man, you just have to relax and take it. However, our joy is that nobody died in the accident.”
Pa Koleosho, a retired motor dealer, told The Nation that he was woken up at about 2a.m by sympathisers who told him that his house was on fire. From where he lives, a short distance away from the shop, he ran to the scene to see what could be done. But then, it was too late; he simply watched as the flame lapped up his property, made up of seven shops.
“When I got here, there was nothing I could do. So, I simply took a chair and sat down to watch the building go up in flame.”
Doing everything to control his emotion, Pa Koleosho continued: “You see, after I came here to see the fire, I went back home and tried to sleep, but I just could not. I was shaking and highly disturbed, so I came back again and watched the fire. I was helpless, just like every other person was. When the firefighters came, they did their best and went back after they ran out of water.”
An eyewitness, Amina Adebayo, who lived in the building which was the epicenter of the fire, told The Nation that the residents were in bed when a loud noise from the crash woke them up. According to her, residents of the building, owned by her late father, rushed out only to see a petroleum tanker, which had fallen off the slope of the Iyana-ipaja flyover.
“We were already sleeping when we heard a very loud noise. Everybody rushed out and we saw the tanker on its back just a few meters away from our house. It was spilling its content. So, somebody advised that we leave the area immediately, that the thing could catch fire any moment. We began to wake all those that were sleeping up. So, everybody began to run, we had hardly run about 100 meters when the fire started.”
Adebayo, a retailer in hair accessory products, said she lost her entire savings to the fire. “My shop was burnt. I am a single mother, and this is the only thing that I live on together with my children. Bu now, I don’t know what would become of me and my children. I started the business about seven years ago with about N800,000. I got the money as soft loans and gifts from family and friends. But now, I have been reduced to nothing yet again. This is too much for me to bear.”
However, contrary to claims in some quarters that the accident was caused by some overzealous traffic officers, Adebayo said the story was not true. According to her, “that story is not true. It was simply an accident. The tanker lost control and fell off the bridge.”
Obinna Orjiakor’s pharmaceutical shop was left in ruin by the fire. The business, which he operates alongside with his wife, he said, was the family’s only source of livelihood. But the fire has set him and his wife back with as much as N25 million, according to him.
Like most young men, Orjiakor said he started the business after completing his term of apprenticeship. “After I served my master, I started the business. It was only recently that I received some goods, but now I don’t have anything again,” he lamented. The 34-year-old got married about two months ago. But now, his dream of a happy married life is being threatened. “Believe me, I don’t know where to start again. Who do I go to for assistance?”
Nwabude Benneth’s story is not in any way different from those of other victims, except that he was yet to come to terms with his loss. Benneth, who is expecting his first child, would be losing his life savings for the second time within eight years. Standing outside what remained of his shop at number 15, New Iyana-Ipaja Road, which only a day before was stocked with electrical and home appliances like generators, television and radio sets and fans, among several other appliances, Benneth smiled wryly, asking the people around him if truly he had lost his investments to the fire.
But, with no one strong enough to answer him, he said: “I started serving my master in 1998, and I did that for 10 years. After I left him, I had my first shop at Agege, but it was destroyed when government was clearing the area. It took me a long time to find my feet again. I sat at home for more than two years struggling to get money. Eventually, I gathered enough money from friends and family members to hire a shop and started selling again. To get to this level, I had to borrow money from a micro-finance bank. But all my efforts have been destroyed once again. I really don’t know where to go from here. I am pleading with the government to come to our aid.”
Funny enough, while the residents of the buildings, located along New Iyana-Ipaja Road, watched in vain as the fire consumed their property, residents of Bakare Jafojo Street, located about six streets away from where the tanker accident happened, were also battling the strange fire.
The mystery was explained by an eyewitness, Suraju Onifade, whose father’s house was also consumed by the fire. According to him, the tanker spilled its content into the drainage, which in turn, took the highly inflammable fluid through many streets, starting from New Iyana-Ipaja Road, through the Iyana-Ipaja bus-stop and finally flowing through Bakare Jafojo, where it consumed 17 vehicles parked along the street.
“What happened was that after the tanker fell down, the content was emptied into the drainage. It flowed from New Iyana-Ipaja Road down to Abule Oki and Bakara Jafojo, where the fire started from.”
Residents of Bakare Jafojo were first alerted to the reality that all was not well when they heard a very loud noise. At first, most of them thought armed robbers had yet again invaded their community. But they soon realised what was amiss when those who were quick to come out raised the alarm, urging everybody to vacate the area.
One of them, 80-year-old retiree, Pa Abayomi Albert, though fortunate to survive the tragedy like all the others, he lost his only car, which he said was his only means of movement, to the fire. Rudely woken up from sleep at about 2am, Pa Albert described his experience as “very unpleasant and very sad.”
Narrating his experience, he said: “My wife was talking to me about some people outside, and the flame was already up. But by the time I thought it alright to jump out of bed, the flame was so high, it was very terrifying. I am an old man now, but I jumped up and tried to get my clothes, but I fell down twice. I was confused, but we had to jump the fence to the other side (Lawal Street) because nobody was sure of what would happen. I could not climb the fence, but my people helped me to scale the fence. But before then, I asked my wife and other family members to go before me, but we were all confused. It was after we crossed over to Lawal Street that we heard some people saying the fire was ignited by petrol, and that it was flowing in the drainage. It was at that point that I realised that I had no cloths on me, I had my sokoto, but nothing on top. It was same with my wife, she had just her wrapper. I pray that nothing of such should happen again.”
At the beginning of the street, Emmanuel Agu sat discussing the incident with a friend. Behind him were the ruins of his Chemist shop, though his mien did not suggest that he had come terms with the reality of his loss.
His shop, located at number one Bakare Jafojo Street, was consumed by the fire. In an emotion-laden voice, Agu told The Nation that the fire had set him back several years. “It is this shop that my family used to feed ourselves. My wife also helps me here, so we have nothing left to survive now. I lost between N400,000 and N500,000 to the fire. I don’t know where my family will get money to survive. It is serious because even before now, life was tough. But with this one, it has gone from bad to worse. My kids are in school right now and my wife had just given birth to a baby girl. I don’t have any other hope.”
Only two weeks ago, residents house number 8, Bakare Jafojo Street, trooped out to rejoice with Taiwo Ogbe, after he purchased a new car, bringing to reality his five-year dream of owning a car. But the fire has put a sudden end to Ogbe’s dream soon after it materialised. “It was my first car and I was very happy when I bought it about two weeks ago,” Ogbe said, forcing himself to smile.
Ogbe said it took him five years of savings, hardwork and discipline to buy the car. “I was happy when I bought the car because it was a dream come true for me. I had dreamt of buying a car, and it came past, so I was very happy. Ogbe said he tried to rescue the car after the fire alarm was raised, but his effort was too little and too late as he had to abandon the car to save his life.
“I rushed out, broke the side glass and entered the car. At the time, it was the front tyre that was burning. I inserted the key into the ignition, but I forgot that I had applied the handbrake. So, the car refused to move. What I wanted to do was move it away from the fire, but I was confused and didn’t know what to do. At last, I had to abandon the car and watched it burn.”
Despite his loss, Ogbe said he has taken solace in his religious belief. “You see, I am a Muslim and I believe that it was Allah that gave me the car. I also believe that He would comfort me and give me another opportunity to get another car.”
But another resident, who owned a kombi bus, was not that lucky. His effort to rescue his bus from the burning flame almost cost him his life. According to eyewitnesses, on realising that his bus was on fire, the man jumped in and tried to drive it away from the flame. But he lost control of the bus and ran into a ditch. The man tried to save his bus. He ran into it and tried to drive it away, but he drove the bus into a gutter and had to be rescued by the people around. He was later rushed to the hospital.”
Another resident, Kazeem Oladunjoye, lost his bus to the fire. Oladunjoye, who works in a mortgage bank, said he used the bus to commute to his place of work, located on Lagos Island. “I used the bus to carry myself to and from work every day.”
Like other residents, Oladunjoye was woken up by the loud cry for help by the people who first sighted the fire. “When we came out, what was paramount on our minds was how to save our lives. Some ran and jumped the fence to the other street, while other young men joined the firefighters to battle the fire. It was much later that I realised that my bus had been consumed. But we thank God that no life was lost.”
Oladunjoye’s wife, Felicia, lamented the loss of the bus, which she said was the only way the family augments its source of income. She was also happy with what she described as a prompt response by the Lagos State government. According to her, a victim of the fire was quickly taken to the hospital where she received urgent medical attention.
But, lamenting the loss of her husband’s bus, Felicia said: “Imagine a man who works in Lagos Island and lives in Iyana-Ipaja on a salary of N30 000. The only way to help the family was the use of the bus, but that is now gone.”
Another resident, Alhaji Kareem Isa, lost his Mitsubishi space wagon to the fire. Peaking on the experience of the residents, he said: “I lost my only car to the fire. But I thank God that we all survived because nobody knew what was happening. We all ran in different directions. We used ladders to climb the fence to escape to the other street. I tell you, if I had attempted to rescue the car, I would have been killed. Soon after the fire started, it brought down the high tension NEPA cable. So, we had to be careful in order not to step on the wire.”
Olaitan Otubanjo lives at house number 4, Bakare Jafojo, in the midst of the confusion, he and other residents resorted to rescuing the young ones. “My last child is about two months old. So, my first priority was to recue my family. We got ladders and made sure that the children escaped first. After that, we came back to join hands with the firefighters to battle the flame.”
Unfortunately, more than two days after the fire, most residents of Bakare Jafojo Street are yet to return home. They fear that the fire may be reignited again. And truly, the fear is well-grounded. According to sources, several hours after the fire had been put out, it reignited again in the afternoon of Tuesday, leading to another panic in the area. “In the afternoon of Tuesday, the fire started again, and we had to call the firefighters who came and flushed the entire section of the drainage in the area. Up till now, the people are still scared that the fire may reignite again.”
Meanwhile, with the promise by the governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, that the government would assist the victims of the incident, many of them are already waiting to see the governor fulfil his promise.