Two persons have lost their lives in separate tanker explosions in Nigeria. The first incident occurred at the Obiri-Ikwerre flyover along the East-West Road in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, where a tanker carrying Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exploded, crushing a salon car with two occupants inside. The second incident happened on the North Freeway near Tidwell Road in Houston, Texas, where a fuel tanker exploded after a collision with a car, causing the driver and passengers to be taken to the hospital.
In Port Harcourt, eyewitnesses reported that the explosion occurred around 9:25 am when the tanker attempted to negotiate the flyover and upturned, immediately going up in flames. Two persons inside a nearby salon car were trapped and roasted to death. The Obiri-Ikwerre flyover leads to the Port Harcourt International Airport in Ikwerre local government area of the state. Another eyewitness reported hearing the explosion from a distance and seeing flames spreading to residential areas nearby, causing panic.
In Houston, good samaritans helped pull the driver of a car from the wreckage seconds before the fuel tanker exploded. The force of the explosion knocked them back and caused significant damage to concrete on the freeway. The damaged concrete combined with hazmat clean-up after fuel poured onto the road entirely shut down that section of the freeway and feeder road for over twenty hours.
These incidents come after similar accidents in Nigeria where containers attached to trucks have fallen and caused damage or loss of life. In one instance, two persons were burnt to death and twelve vehicles were gutted by fire in a petrol tanker explosion at Sango-Ota Old Toll Gate Plaza along the Lagos-Abeokuta road in Ogun State.
