According to Daily Sun,no fewer than 20 people were feared dead while others sustained injuries in an inferno involving a fuel-laden truck at Bode-Saadu, headquarters of Moro Local Government Area of Kwara State on Monday night.
The fire also destroyed houses, shops and cows worth millions of naira.
Although Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mary Wakawa said only four people died during the accident while four others were seriously injured, residents of the area who spoke with Daily Sun on phone stated that the casualty figure was not certain, adding that although the accurate number would only be known after the inferno had subsided, about 20 persons may have died.
Spokesman for the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Oba Hassan Kadiri, told our reporter that four of the accident victims who were brought to the hospital had suffered about 85 degree burns and were already being transferred to different clinics after initial treatment at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital.
According to him, the number of those who sustained injuries was still high as there were still others yet to be transferred to the hospital from the accident scene.
Kadiri also explained that the Kwara State Government had pledged to pick up the bills of the victims.
He said most of the victims were brought in while the Commissioner for Health, Kayode Issa, was at the hospital and subsequently made the pledge on behalf of the government.
It was gathered that the accident occurred at about 9.30 p.m. on Monday as the truck fell while meandering the bad portion of the road. It subsequently burst into flames spilling its content which spread to nearby houses and shops.
Wakawa said: “Last night (Monday) a tanker caught fire at Bode Saadu at about 9.30pm. Eight people were involved, four of them died and four sustained serious injuries.
It was a lone accident and we have been there since yesterday. The fire was still on as at this morning but it has come down. We have sent out our men to the site to clear the road for traffic.”
The corpses of the deceased were later deposited at the UITH mortuary.
Source:Sun News
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