Property worth several millions of naira was yesterday destroyed in an oil spill fire in Effurun, Delta State.
The fire, which destroyed several cars and commodity shops inside the mechanic village, was a few meters away from the scene of a similar fire at the Mammy Market of 3 Battalion, Effunrun, about three weeks ago.
The Nation gathered that the fire started when an electrical spark near a spot where a punctured pipeline had spilled crude oil the previous day.
Although officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were said to have visited the spill site with three trucks on Thursday to suck up the spilled oil, the efforts of the corporation could not prevent another disaster.
As at the time of filing this report, fire service officials were succeeding in containing the spread of the fire.
The situation created a massive road traffic lockdown, as outgoing and incoming vehicles through the Warri/Benin highway were trapped in the gridlock.
Sources around the scene of the fire said the oil spill was caused by some youths in the area, who they alleged, punctured the pipeline to siphon crude oil.
“We woke up on Thursday and discovered that crude oil had flooded the Sapele road. That same morning, NNPC brought about three fuel tankers to drain the oil.
“But at about 9am, we saw fire. And before we knew it, it had spread everywhere. No life was lost because the soldiers have been on guard since yesterday,” said a taxi driver, who gave his name as Osas.
Another eyewitness, who spoke in confidence, stated that about fifteen vehicles and several shops were consumed in the flames, adding that people had been asked to evacuate the area since the previous day.
“A buyer had proposed to buy one tipper that was burnt for a million naira, but the owner refused to sell. Another man had just parked a new Toyota Hiace bus to buy something. Before he returned, the bus had been engulfed in flames,” the eyewitness said.
When reached for comments, the Head of Public Affairs at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Goddy Agusa, said he was not very informed about the fire, as he had been out of town.
He, however, pointed out that steps were already being taken to take care of the situation.
“I travelled and just came back to town yesterday evening. While I was passing, I saw that they were trying to suck out crude into trucks. That is the much I know. It’s like they’ve given out a contract to a company to do the clean up and maybe do remediation later,” Agusa said.
When reached for comments, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, expressed frustration at the development, noting that the corporation was yet to be done with remediation works on the incident at the Mammy Market, some metres away from the current fire.
He appealed to Nigerians to fight those in the habit of vandalising public properties, noting that the constant attacks on oil facilities by vandals could only worsen the standards of living for both Nigeria and Nigerians.
He said the NNPC suspected a wilful act of sabotage in the constant occurrences of oil spill and fire in the area.
