The Apata Ibadan depot of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday was gutted by fire.
The incident, according to an official of the NNPC, occurred in the loading section of the depot.
The development caused traffic gridlock for motorists plying the popular Apata-Abeokuta road.
No official statement yet on the casualty as at the time of filing this report.
Men of the state fire service were battling hard to put off the fire as at the time of this report.
DAILY POST gathered that the depot was two years ago reopened for operation after years of neglect.
The reopening of the depot was part of the turn around maintenance of the government to ease fuel loading and distribution.
The then NNPC Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, said that President Muhammadu Buhari was concerned about ease of fuel distribution and supply to every part of the company, which he said informed his commitment to upgrading of storage facilities across Nigeria.
He stated that the reopening of the depot would ease the stress of transporting fuel from Lagos to Ibadan.
DAILY POST gathered that no fewer than seven (7) persons sustained various degrees of injuries during the fire incident.
This newspaper had yesterday reported how a section of the loading point was completely damaged by fire, while three petrol tankers were also burnt.
It was gathered that one of the persons injured, simply identified as Moji was caught in the raging fire, sustaining severe burns.
DAILY POST learnt that activities at the depot has been suspended forthwith, as the usual loading of fuel has been shut down as at the time of filing this report Wednesday evening.
The immediate cause of the inferno could not be ascertained, but a source attributed the afternoon fire to an electrical surge which sparked off the fire.
One of the drivers of one of the affected tankers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, however, insisted that the fire was caused by one of the tanker drivers at the loading point.
He said, “I was there when one of the tanker drivers was removing his battery and using another truck’s battery to kick start his truck.
“It was when he put the battery and was hitting the head of the battery, trying to fix it that fire sparked from the battery and the next thing we say was a pillow of fire, trapping everyone available.”
The fire, which lasted for about two hours, was, however, quenched by a team of the Oyo State Fire Services and men of the NNPC for fighters who struggled to put off the fire.
Members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) DSS and team of policemen have been deployed to scene of the fire incident to maintain law and order.
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