No fewer than 25 vehicles were burnt and 13 people injured as a tanker loaded with gas exploded Thursday night on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, opposite Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos.
The explosion which occurred at 10.32 p.m., according to the National Emergency Managament Agency, NEMA, was allegedly caused by leakage while on motion.
The fire that resulted, NEMA said, travelled with the wind to the premises of Ogun State Property Investment Company, OPIC, Plaza besides Sheraton Hotels and Towers.
OPIC Plaza houses different commercial outfits including a Chinese restaurant.
The fire was put out at about 12.30 a.m. Friday after the concerted efforts of five fire trucks from Lagos State Fire Service and two trucks from LASEMA Response Unit.
The initial search and rescue activities revealed that 13 persons sustained various degrees of burns.
Nine of the persons injured are male while four are female.
The affected victims were attended to at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, for first aid.
Four of them said to be critically injured were said to have been transferred to Burn Centre, General Hospital Gbagada at about 02.30 a.m. Friday.
Preliminary assessment of vehicles damaged indicated that about 25 were burnt.
It was gathered that comprehensive post disaster assessment on the extent of general damage would be done later today.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Hakeem Odumosu, was at the scene for crowd control and to normalise the situation for a successful operation.
NEMA, LASTMA, Lagos State Fire Service, FRSC and NSCDC were also at the scene.
