The incident occurred on the busy Aba-Owerri Road in the commercial city. It was gathered that the truck, which also burnt beyond repairs, was entering a filling station on Aba-Owerri Road to discharge its content when the truck pulled off and fell on the road median and emptied its contents on the ground. It was also gathered that as the fuel spilled on the road, a commercial bus which was passing by, ignited the fire which caused the havoc. According to an eyewitness: “We suspected that the heat from the bus exhaust pipe was what ignited the fire and before you knew what was happening, everywhere was in flame. The rage of the fire was so fierce that some of us had to run for safety until the Abia State fire servicemen arrived the scene”. Although about seven vehicles, three commercial tricycles were destroyed and five buildings torched in the inferno, no life was lost. Another man that lost his car in the inferno, Rev. Alfred Okeke told reporters that he parked it by the roadside to buy feed for his livestock when the incident occurred and lamented that his car was equally burnt . A resident of one of the affected buildings, Mr. Emmanuel Kingsley, while thanking God for sparing the lives of his brothers and other members of his family, described the incident as one of the horrific experiences he has had in recent times. Men of the Abia State Fire Service were battling to quench the fire, personnel of the Aba State sector of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were also on ground to ensure that there was free flow of traffic in the area. An official of the Fire Service, who spoke to our correspondent on anonymity, said the damage would have been worse if the content was Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS). FRSC Aba Commander, Okora Awassam, who lamented the attitude of truck drivers on the road, said that there were a lot of enlightenment programmes that the agency had initiated to educate the drivers on the need to be safety conscious at all times.
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