A teenager has been killed after a tanker ladened with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol exploded along the Lagos – Abeokuta Expressway.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the incident on Friday, saying it occurred at about 2:06am.
It explained that the tanker was conveying 45,000 litres of petrol before it crashed and spilled its content on the road.
The incident occurred at the Ajegunle Bus-Stop of Alagbado (a border community) axis of the highway, causing gridlock as residents ran for safety.
But NEMA said emergency responders swiftly arrived at the scene, adding that officials of the Lagos State Fire Service handled the raging inferno from the Lagos end while their counterparts from the Ogun State Fire Service faced it from the Ogun side of the road.
It affirmed that the fire has been put out, but responders were in the process of mopping up the area to enable free flow of traffic again in the axis.
The agency, however, regretted that a 15-year-old boy identified as Oluwatobi Lawal, died in the incident while the inferno consumed 42 makeshift shops.
It said the teenager was preparing to write this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), as well as the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
According to NEMA, an assessment of the impact of the incident is ongoing and the buffer zone between the road and residential houses saved the structures from being affected.