By: Felix Ikpotor
No fewer than seven persons were confirmed death on Monday including a pregnant woman and three children as fire gutted seven market boats at the Bonny/Bille/Nembe Jetty in Port Harcourt city Council of Rivers State.
This is even as the state government has vowed to prosecute all those found culpable in the triple fire incidents that have rocked the state in the last three days.
This came barely 48 hours after two fire incidents destroyed properties worth millions of naira in Rumuokoro and D/line axis of the state capital.
It was gathered that many others who sustained several degrees of burns were rushed to the hospital on Monday.
According to an eyewitness, the fire was reportedly ignited by a spark from a cigarette smoker who was offloading adulterated kerosene products from a boat.
The eyewitness, who gave his name as Johnson, said the boat exploded after the said person ignited his lighter and engulfed six other houseboats within range.
It was also gathered that the bodies of the pregnant woman and three children were recovered, while many were feared missing at the time of the report.
He said: “Children and many others were feared dead in the fire outbreak at Nembe waterside close to creek road market in Port Harcourt.
“The boat was parked beside 6 other boats. one had passengers with their goods like timber, crayfish, garri, kerosene, and other food items already waiting to take off.”
Another witness identified as Madam Elijah, said: “These boys who don’t want to be useful to themselves have just wasted the lives of people. My greatest pain is the children.
“A baby of a month old and the mother roasted because of carelessness.
“They were unloading the product from a boat while a man was smoking. I don’t know what he did. The next thing we saw was a fire igniting from the offloading boat.
“ Since the place already has oil and other products, the fire became uncontrollable.
“The heavy breeze helped to spread the fire to umbrellas and tables of people who were buying and selling.
“Some persons who were injured were rushed to Rivers State teaching hospital for treatment.
“Fire service personnel who came were driven away in anger by traders for coming late when the damage has already been done.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Commissioner for Special Duties, Emeka Onowu, said the state government would seize any property used for illegal bunkering activities, and prosecute owners of such properties.
He was speaking during as inspection of the fire scene.
Onowu said: “We are going to investigate the cause of the fire incidents and prosecute the perpetrators. Let the owners of this property that was used for oil bunkering make himself available for investigation or we will confiscate this property in two weeks. Government will use it to build school or even healthcare centre”.
He also accused community leaders and security agencies of sabotage by not reporting illegal bunkering activities, and arresting the perpetrators.
On his part, the spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni has confirmed the incident, stating that efforts are on to stop incessant petroleum inferno in the state.
He urged residents to desist from storage of petroleum products in residential areas as well as report any incident to the police for quick action.
Omoni stressed that the police are determined to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to book to serve as a deterrent to others.
