A petrol tanker fire Wednesday night, razed down more than 10 buildings including shopping malls, banks, residences and a Mobil filling station near the Denis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS)Round about Upper New Market road, Onitsha destroying properties worth billions of naira.

Drumnewsonline learnt that the fire was caused by an explosion resulting from an impact caused by a tanker laden with Premium Motor Spirit,(PMS) which lost control and rammed into the filling station. The fire spread wildly as the spilt content of the tanker flowed freely down the road with its attendant balls of fire. Many people were trapped in the inferno while others sustained various degrees of injuries while trying to escape the raging inferno.

The extent of casualties and losses by those involved had not been ascertained as at this morning but one of the victims, Mr Benjamin Chikeluba, proprietor of Bencash Electronics and general goods plaza told Drumnewsonline this morning that he lost wares worth more than N100million stocked in the 3-floor shopping mall situated at No 99, Upper New New Market Road, few meters from the filling station. However, an official of the state fire service, Mr Innocent Mbonu was quoted as saying that the details on the remote cause and level of damage will be issued later in the morning after investigation.

Source: Drumnewsonline