Relieving his experience to News Express Wednesday, one of the victims who escaped by the whiskers, Chief Nnamdi Okafor, a landlord of two of the buildings close to the gas station said that he managed to escape the inferno with his family through God’s intervention.
According to him, the fire disaster took place when a tanker laden with gas was being discharged around 11am on Saturday at Onochie Nnanna filling station at Nkwelle Ezunaka.
During the incident, two bungalows belonging to Okafor close to the gas station were razed while the occupants of the two buildings escaped unhurt without any of their belongings.
Also, documents like certificates were lost to the inferno. The two victims who lost their lives were the driver of the tanker from the north (names unknown) and another young man who returned from Ibadan after his youth service, Ezenwoke Nwigwe, from Abia State.
Narrating their experiences Wednesday, the security man at the gas station from Adamawa State, Harrison Alphonsus said one of the victims (Nwigwe) only came on a rescue mission but lost his life in the process.
“I did not lose my life during the incident like Nwigwe because I ran away after the victim had collected the fire extinguisher from me,” he said.
The two victims were said to have been taken to the orthopaedic hospital in Enugu where they gave up the ghost, while the injured persons remained hospitalised with varied degrees of burn.
Chief Okafor described the situation as sad and unfortunate adding that it was God’s intervention that saved his entire family including his pregnant wife from the inferno.
He however, hailed the fire service officers at Okpoko in Onitsha, who he said responded with their fire equipment some minutes the fire started and immediately got the situation under control.
Okafor while lamenting said, “The clothes I wore yesterday were bought after the incident. All my property and those of my tenants were completely lost in the fire disaster.
“The fire incident has crippled me, everything I have as a man has been lost including those of my tenants, but what pains me most is the loss of Eze, who I always call my son.”
“Eze was loved by everybody in this neighbourhood, he relates to all and also close to the owner of the gas station, what happened is a sad one and it will be difficult for anyone around here to forget.
“The owner of the gas station, Onochie Nwokike, was in tears.”
He regretted the death of Ezenwoko and the driver, saying that what happened was enough for anybody to commit suicide but that he will continue to trust in God.
