Explosion causes panic in Delta

The incident which occurred at the premises of company forcefully blew off the lid of one of the tanks, which flew several metres before landing on the roof of one of the buildings in the neighbourhood.

The impact shattered the roof and created a big crater on the floor of the building as well as destroyed several household property, including a television set.

It was learnt that the life of a child, who was lying on a foam on the floor of the house was saved by the whiskers, as the child was carried out to be fed barely some minutes before the mishap.

Narrating how the incident occurred, the company where the explosion occurred, Cosmos Ebilefu, explained that workers were about to close duty for the day when suddenly the incident happened at about 5 pm‎.

He said: “When we were carrying out operations yesterday (Tuesday) evening and we were about to close, suddenly we heard an explosion. It happened that the air tank exploded as a‎ result of in-built air in the tank which was caused as a result of reversal of air in the tank which built up high pressure.

“In the process of carrying out our investigation, we found out that the air pipe was blocked by a little object and there was no access to the air, that caused the explosion”, he said.

E‎bilefu, while denying allegation that the company was involved in illegal bunkering which may have caused the explosion, explained that they were into management of crude oil waste and sludge from NNPC, Seplat and other companies as well as environmental cleaning.

He said steps would be‎ taken to avoid future occurrence of such incident.

At the Koko Police Station where the incident was said to have been reported, the Divisional Police Officer who declined to be named, confirmed the incident.