Fresh Explosions Hit Port Harcourt:30 dead

Barely a week after over 100 persons were roasted in a tanker explosion in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, another tragedy struck again on Friday as residents witnessed another fire incidents in four different locations.

While residents around Abuloma Jetty were jolted by the explosion of a vessel that claimed the lives of at least 30 persons, workers of Rivers State Newspaper Corporation lost property worth millions of naira as fire gutted the second floor of The Tide Newspaper building located on Ikwerre Road.

Also, the Engineering Department of a Port Harcourt-based radio station, Rhythm FM, was razed by an early morning fire that had made the station to go off air.

Sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC in Rivers state Kayode Olagunja said this about the Abuloma fire; “An oil vessel, around 9:45am, caught fire and exploded at the Abuloma water front, Trans Amadi in Port Harcourt.

“Fire is still restricted to the water area. FRSC, NEMA, Police and other rescue agencies are on ground. Casualty figures are yet unknown.”

The Rivers Police Command however affirmed that it did not suspect any foul play in the fires, which gutted the Abuloma jetty.

Spokesman Ben Ugwuegbulam told said the fire at Abuloma jetty was caused by a gas explosion.

Ugwuegbulam advised people to always be safety-conscious and switch off all electrical appliances when leaving their houses, and also avoid scooping petroleum products from accident tankers.

The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, disclosed that the inferno destroyed the top floor of the building.

She said that Gov. Chibuike Amaechi had directed experts from the state Ministries of Works and Housing to evaluate the extent of the damage.
She said: ‘’ It will be very important that government does that. I have briefed his Excellency the Governor of Rivers state who has directed that

Honorable commissioners for works and housing look at the building so that we can begin even with the evaluation of the integrity of the building.

‘’ I have briefed the honorable commissioner for Special Duties whose men were here to work alongside men of the Total fire service to put out the fire.

‘’ And, I believe that when you have these kinds of things the first things that happens, of course, is that you find out the cause of fire.

‘’ We are not competent to do so, either at the ministry of information or at the Tide . We will expect that those who have the capacity and the men to do so will do so.’’

Semenitari said no life was lost but that vital documents were lost.

Mr Celestine Ogolo, the General Manager of the newspaper corporation, said the fire began at about 2 a.m. on Friday.

He said the fire consumed the entire top floor housing the general manager’s office.

‘’ Well, it consumed the entire left wing of the second floor housing the general manager’s office , the credit control unit, the administration general office , the board room and a few other offices that are close by.

‘’ A lot was lost, you know. We bought new sets of computer sets which were to replace others in the computer room, we lost all that.

‘’ We bought new sets of chairs that we just bought; we are yet to complete payment for these chairs.

‘’A lot of furniture, a lot of documents, a lot of very very important documents. Some had their original documents destroyed because they were also trying to fine tune their  papers  for retirement .

‘’So, original documents have been lost. A lot have been lost to this inferno.’’