By Francis Sadhere

What could have been a deadly fire disaster in the Oil rich city of Warri, Delta State was averted this morning as two tankers offloading kerosene went up in flames at Awenayeri Filling Station located in a residential area along Airport Road, Warri.

One of the burnt tanker.

According to an eyewitness, the two tankers were discharging their products when all of sudden one of the engines of one of the trucks went up in flames.

The Manager of the filling station who spoke to our correspondent under strict anonymity said they did not know the cause of the fire, adding that such things happen some times when proper precaution is not taken by the workers.

The second tanker.

Another eyewitness who also did not want his name in print said when they saw the fire coming out of the engines of one of the tankers, they all took to their heels because they were thinking that the tanker was loaded with fuel, stressing that even when the people were calling for assistant they did not listen to them.

The eyewitness added that they could have put out the fire immediately if they knew that what they were discharging was kerosene and not fuel, adding that by the time they knew that it was not fuel the fire had gone out of hand.

He said it took the efforts of the state fire service to put out the fire, but they could not save the two tankers as they were burnt beyond repair. He added that luckily the products the tankers were carrying were not affected by the fire.

The filling station which is located in a residential area was lucky that the fire was put out before it got to other parts of the station where they have underground tanks and other flammable fluids. If the fire had affected the filling station hundreds of house located around the filling station would have been engulfed by the inferno.