Following the Fire Outbreak that gutted Ochanja market, Onitsha on Wednesday caused by a Petrol Tanker that crashed, Governor WIllie Obiano of Anambra state has sacked Engineer Agbili. O. Martin, the Chief Fire Officer for delayed response to the Fire situation where lives and properties were lost.
Less than 48 hours after the unfortunate incident on Wednesday, Another tanker carrying petroleum exploded in Onitsha just Another tanker carrying petroleum has exploded in Onitsha spilling its contents in the same State, which resulted in a massive fire.
The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Chief C-Don Adinuba made the disclosure while announcing the appointment of Air Vice Marshal Ben Chiobi as new Chief Officer of the Fire Department.
Ben Chiobi is to henceforth resume his duties as the the new Fire Chief and the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Fire department.
Chiobi who works as Special Adviser to Governor Obiano on Creative Security while playing the role of Coordinator of the Anambra State Integrated Security System.
The Commissioner of Information said the restructuring was in line with Governor Willie Obiano to ensure the State Fire Service had more freedom to exercise their constitutional rights
According to Adinuba, there would be an amendment of the laws governing the State Fire Service to ensure the Service is independent of the state Ministry of Public Utilities.
He further disclosed this would rid the State Fire Service of any bureaucratic processes and enable the Department to function efficiently
Strong reactions have trailed the two days ago tanker explosion in Onisha as more dead bodies were recovered at the Ochanja market area of the place.
The Herald on Wednesday, October 16, reported that the incident claimed the lives of six people, while 14 others sustained injuries in a multiple road crash at Upper Iweka Road, along the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
One of the victims, Chukwuka Okeke, a neighbour to the woman who died with her baby in the fire incident, described the tragedy as unfortunate but avoidable.
Okeke said it was not up to twenty minutes he chatted with the woman before she was consumed in the inferno. In an emotion-laden voice,
According to him, “We were in our shops when I got the call that there was a fire incident at Iweka, Onitsha. Though we saw smoke going up from a distance, nobody could believe it would extend to this place.
“For over three hours, we were perceiving the smell of fuel mixed with gas from the tanker as it flowed through the drainage until the whole thing went up in flames. The woman had already rushed out of the shop with her baby when she suddenly went back.
“But she slipped and fell inside the gutter, which was already in flames.” Okeke said the woman whose husband also owns a shop in the city, had the baby early this year after 16 years of marriage. She got married in 2003 but had her first baby early this year. It’s really a tragedy.