Calabar Free Trade Zone Fire: At Least 30 Feared Dead

I saw someone whose entire legs melted in the fire. It was only his bones that were sticking out. I do not know if he will survive. It was very horrible. There was fire everywhere, says Eyewitness

About 30 persons died when an inferno from an explosion razed part of the Calabar Free Trade Zone, CFTZ, in the early hours of yesterday.

 However, Police have said nine persons died in the incident, with others sustaining various degrees of burns. They added that the cause of the explosion was yet unknown.

The CFTZ in Esuk Utan community is host to several tank farms belonging to different companies, but yesterday’s fire incident reportedly emanated from LINC Oil and Gas’ tank farm as a result of what was termed negligence and sabotage by some of its staff.

An eyewitness, Mr. Ikenga Uti, disclosed that a worker, who was trying to siphon petrol from a vessel opened one of the valves, but unfortunately the gasket on the valve failed. So the pressure threw him off, with fuel flowing into the gutter.

He said people started scooping it with various containers—drums, plastic and steel buckets.