Tuesday Night Fire disaster.

“Life… so uncertain, so unpredictable!”

The truth in the above statement once again came to fore two days ago; some minutes after 9pm on Tuesday night to be exact.

A Tanker carrying PMS(Premium motor spirit), Petrol as most of us know it lost control along Ikorodu road by Stadium bustop in Lagos. The petrol tank oveturned onto the highway and exploded into flames. This was happening in the thick of traffic (you don’t want to know what a typical lagos traffic is like!). Needless to say, several cars, buses and their occupants were roasted alive on that road. These were people headed home to rest after the hustle and bustle of the day. Am quite sure most of them were already imagining themselves in the comfort of their homes (I do that sometimes when am caught in traffic) not knowing that disaster was just a moment away.

On that fateful day at about the same time, I was also caught in traffic (thankfully not on Ikorodu road by stadium bustop) somewhere along Gbagada/Oshodi expressway. I had left the office at about 7pm hoping to get home latest by 8pm. Usually it takes me about 45mins to 1hour to get home and I wasn’t expecting anything different on that day. Unfortunately for me, the traffic on my route was HELL! As at after 9pm, your’s truly was still sweating it out in Lagos traffic. I even dozed off to sleep at some point and hit the bumper of the car in front of me. Thank God nothing happened to the car ( I for pay gbese!) but my darling baby was slightly bruised. Don’t blame me o I was REALLY tired.

After that happened, I needed to keep awake so I turned on the car stereo and tuned into some station that was jamming some cool songs. I soon started bobbing my head to the music and the sleep cleared from my eyes. Suddenly the breaking news came in. A petrol tanker had exploded along Ikorodu road and the fire was raging on furiously. The radio presenter called on the relevant authorities (In this case, Fire service) to act fast and save the lives of people caught in the fuselage. As I listened to the news, I quickly said a prayer for the unfortunate people that were involved and hoped that the Fire Service people would respond rapidly and quell the situation knowing in my heart that was probably a tall wish. Who doesn’t know that in Naija, whenever there is a fire outbreak the fire fighters get to the scene hours after the fire starts sometimes with no water, Pity!)

At that moment, it struck me that it could possibly be me on that bridge fighting for my life(God forbid bad thing sha!). In fact just around me in the traffic were lots of petrol tankers too (seems like they all do their deliveries at night). I wondered what if one of them suddenly lost control, overturned on the road and exploded into flames roasting all of us on that road like it was happening on Ikorodu road at that same time??? The thought that came to my mind was “na only God dey save person o!”. It could be anyone…they were just unfortunate. Can we say it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or what?

Wednesday morning as I drove to work, I tuned on the radio hoping to hear something about the previous night’s incident. It was there alright in the news and it saddened me to learn that the fire had claimed lots of lives. The innocent lives didn’t stand a chance in that fire explosion. Some had tried to flee their cars in the bid to escape but they still got roasted. These were people’s parents, brothers, sisters, friends, children! Perhaps I even had a friend there!! A pregnant woman was also roasted alive, Terrible!!! And you know the annoying part of it all, the fire fighters who never fail to disappoint showed up one whole hour after the fire started despite the fact that their office is located just a few meters from the scene of the fire.

I write this post with a heavy heart and I’d like everyone reading this to pause for a moment now and say a prayer for the unfortunate souls that perished in that incident.

May their souls rest in prefect peace, Amen.