An early morning fire outbreak at Chibyno filling station along Alaoji-Ikot-Ekpene Road in Abia’s Obingwa local government area has claimed two lives.

Zonal commander of Aba Fire Service, Belenta Belenta, told journalists that over five trucks were destroyed by the fire caused by an explosion.

Mr Belenta, who spoke from the scene, said he suspected that the victims were involved in oil bunkering, which might have informed the discharging of petroleum products at the station in the wee hours of the day.

He said his men were informed of the incident in the early hours of Wednesday, prompting their move to the scene, where they employed all tactics to quench the fire.

He added that the police had visited the scene to take the corpse of one of the accident victims who died immediately to the mortuary.

Mr Belenta added that the other victim rushed to the hospital was later pronounced dead.

A witness, who gave his name as Nnamdi, said he lived in the area and was awakened by calls around 5:00 a.m. to come to the station.

“The filling station had four trucks which were discharging fuel at the same time. We learnt that there was a little spark from the generating set they were using to pump the fuel into their tank, which resulted in an explosion,” he narrated.

Spokesperson for the police, Geoffrey Ogbonna, did not respond to requests seeking comment on the incident.

(NAN)