The fire equipment and personnel of United Bank for Africa (UBA), in Lagos were yet again the saving grace on Friday when a fuel loaded tanker belonging to NNPC fell and caught fire at Obalende, which threatened to engulf adjoining buildings including an Oando Filling State close to the scene.
This development is sequel to no fewer than three similar instances in the recent past when the UBA Fire Service got to the scene of fire outbreaks around the axis, including that of Balogun market, and proved to be the saving grace.
In these instances, which also included the fire outbreak at Transcorp office, the UBA fire fighters, with the world-class fire engines, got the scenes of the fire incidents far ahead of those of the state government, and proved to be better prepared and more effective in bringing the inferno under control.
The fire at the filling station started at about 3:30pm when a tanker which was to discharge fuel at the fell and caught fire. The fire engulfed the station and was almost extending to adjoining buildings.
Some Nigerians around the Lagos Island axis have noticed this trend, and commented on this on Twitter on Friday.
One such commentator, @Lordtambo147 tweeted, “UBA fire tanker came through at obalende..other fire tankers were just pouring spit…we need more of this type of tankers,” adding “I swear it was so annoying wen Lagos and federal fire fighters came with their old trucks.”
Another commentator, @st_deji tweeted “So a corporation tanker is better than the whole Lagos state fire service tanker. Welcome to Nigeria.”
Yet another, @MeSolo247 tweeted “@UBAGroup are just back to back on giving back to the society and community service.”
On his part, @Mukthaarr tweeted “Because they were using the right tools. You don’t use water to put off a gasoline fire like the other fire Service were doing. You use things like foam or CO2. You could see the difference.”
The twitter thread could be read here
