A cab driver, identified simply as Segi, and a nursing mother were burnt to death on Thursday in a tanker explosion on Sawmill Bridge, Onipepeye, at the Ibadan end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Segi reportedly came out of his cab and was scooping fuel that spilled from the tanker when it ignited.
The woman was said to have been trapped while struggling to come out of a car stuck at the scene. Reports have it that the car was driven by her husband, who escaped with their two children.
Our correspondents learnt that the fire raged for about 30 minutes before officials of the Oyo State Fire Service and the Federal Fire Service arrived at the scene.
An eyewitness and resident of the area, Babatunde Ajayi, told one of our correspondents that the sad incident happened around 1.30pm, lamenting that the explosion was avoidable.
He said, the accident happened around 1:30pm when a petrol tanker en route to Ibadan wanted to negotiate its way to avoid hitting a Micra car along Sawmill Bridge, Onipepeye. It slipped and fell in the middle of the expressway. The driver escaped and there was no explosion at that moment. The explosion happened minutes later.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has commiserated with the families of victims of the fire, describing the incident as depressing.
