From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
At least, four persons have been confirmed dead as a result of explosion from a gas plant in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State.
The explosion which occurred on Friday night, was caused by a suspected leakage of gas at the Osadebey Gas Plant along the Agbor axis of the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway.
Besides the four victims, about 11 persons who suffered severe degrees of burns, are now at different hospitals where medics are battling to save their lives.
Also, several houses within the neighbourhood of the plant were razed by the raging inferno that resulted from the deafening explosion.
An eyewitness said: “We saw fire explosion in the Osadebe Gas Plant, so we rescued some of the victims and moved them to Central Hospital, Agbor, while the fire service people were also on ground.
“But already, one of the victims had died, while another one died in the Central Hospital, Agbor, because there were no doctors, nurses and equipment in our Central Hospital, Agbor, which we think was very unfortunate.”
As a result, most of the burnt victims were transferred to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Asaba, as well as the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in neighbouring Edo State.
Meanwhile, the Delta State government has commiserated with the families of the dead victims, while also promising to pick up the medical bills of those injured during the devastating fire.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa made the promise when he visited the scene of disaster yesterday morning.
Dr. Okowa confirmed that four persons died while 11 others were currently hospitalised, lamenting that the inferno also destroyed the properties of the casualties.
