Fire Engulfs Oil Bunkering Site In Rivers, 4 Feared Dead

Four persons are feared dead as fire engulfed an illegal crude oil refining site at the Rumuji-Ibaa River in Emuoha Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The Guardian reports that seven other people sustained various degree of burns.

An eyewitness, one Mr Onyema Okoro, told journalists in Port Harcourt that residents of the area woke up to see the “huge thick black smoke” billowing into the atmosphere.

Okoro said, “The fire even spread to the bush. When the fire came down we saw a boat on fire. The people that were inside, no one was seen coming out.

“People were also scared going close to the place. Later when people got there, they found out it was four persons that were burnt. “

According to Okoro, seven persons who survived but sustained serious burns were taken for treatment.

He said further, “Some people that the fire touched ran into the bush. The ones they could rescue they took them to the village. But all the chemists there said they could not treat those kinds of fire burns.

“So, I don’t know what happened to them again. But for the ones that died, they buried them there because they said according to tradition when people die like that they don’t take them home. ”

He, however, said people from the village were seen coming out to buy raw eggs which he said they would use to help in the treatment of the survivors of the inferno.

The spokesman of the State police command, Nnamdi Omoni, said he is yet to be briefed on the incident.