- Sources blamed the incident on dangerous driving and the company handling the reconstruction of the Eleme section of the road.
- The fire was said to have raged for hours but was later put out by many fire service trucks with support from the Indoroma Petrochemical.
A yet-to-be specified number of people have been burnt in several explosions that occurred from fuel tankers at the Eleme section of the east-west road in Rivers state.
Over 100 vehicles were reportedly affected by the incident which occurred late night Friday, leaving many travelers stranded.
It was gathered that a tanker carrying petroleum products had exploded, catching fire and spreading to numerous other tankers and cars caught in a traffic gridlock.
Some claimed to have counted over 300 burned cars, while others claimed to have counted over 100.
Sources claimed that many persons stranded in their cars were being scorched by the fire, even if the exact number of casualties was unknown.
Many fire vehicles and assistance from Indoroma Petrochemical extinguished the fire, which was reported to have lasted for hours.
A source claimed to have heard voices calling for assistance twice as loud as he could from his home.
The source said: “I heard a very loud sound about 20 minutes ago, and people were shouting.
“The sound came from the Petro-Chemical company area. So when I came out I saw a tick smoke with fire from a distance.”
A resident of Port Harcourt, Segun Owolabi said: “I saw four dead bodies burnt. Some may have been in the bushes because many ran away. I saw a whole stretch of vehicles burnt down, trailer burnt down.
“There seems to be a truck carrying substances and it was as if it had collision with another vehicle that may have ignited the fire. Over 20 vehicles burnt down and several people trapped.
“There may be more bodies. Oh my God this is a tragedy. A stretch of vehicles burnt”.
This is a developing story…