By Ade Jacobs
Officials from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, are still battling with the fire outbreak at the Oando Tank farm located in Apapa, Lagos, many hours after it started.
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, had earlier said it has evacuated all the staff working in the farm.
The cause of the fire incident has yet to be determined but preliminary information by LASEMA said it emanated from one of the terminals in the farm.
According to information earlier gathered by 365Daily, first responders from both federal and state governments swung into action but are still battling heavily to put out the flame which has now spread to a larger part of farm and still raging.
Security personnel from the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, Nigerian Navy Fire Service and Forte Oil Fire Service were deployed to join other emergency workers to stop the inferno from spreading to other tank farms in the area.
The director-general of LASEMA Femi Oke -Osayintolu, said “the agency has activated its emergency response plan and all relevant stakeholders have commenced appropriate measures to combat the flames and prevent secondary incidents.”
Meanwhile, OVH Energy, the mother company of OANDO retail brand in Africa, said there are no casualties so far, adding that investigation has started to find out the cause of the inferno.
According to the company, “Preliminary information about the incident reveals that the fire emanated from a tank within the terminal, we confirm reports on the fire incident which took place.
“Whilst an investigation has been launched to ascertain other details, we have a team of professional firefighters on the ground to manage the outbreak.
“Safety remains our priority at OVH Energy as we operate under high safety standards to curb incidences of fire outbreaks as well as other health and safety risks from happening at any of our stations.”
There are many tank farms in the area and serious efforts to relocate them in the past have proved abortive.