It could easily have become a disastrous Christmas celebration in Lagos after two tankers struggling to overtake each other on the Anthony Bridge collided, leaving one of the tankers crashing into the ground while the other sped off.
The fallen tanker was transporting 33, 000 litres of fuel which immediately began spilling out into the road upon its crash. If not for the prompt and effective response of both the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and the Lagos State Fire Service, it could have resulted in disaster. The incident occurred at about midnight on Saturday.
General Manager of LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu confirmed the incident, explaining that a call came at the agency’s call centre to alert about the accident at about 12.15 am.
“We discovered that the fuel in the tanker was leaking heavily from the three compartments and men of the Lagos State Fire Service were on ground to blanket the fuel with chemicals and foam to reduce the level of combustible capacity to explode. We traced the path of the leaking fuel into the compound of Greensprings Schools in Anthony and thus also run through the underground gutters emptying this into the Obanikoro canal.
“The Fire Services pumped massive chemicals in its path to diffuse the powers of the fuel and LASEMA and other Emergency Response Team went into the neighbourhood to evacuate people and asking everybody to stop all forms of cooking and took them to safety,” he said.
The LASEMA GM said it took them over eight hours to bring the situation under control. He also said the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, came to the scene at about 3am to see things for himself.
