Five Injured,  Vehicles Torched As Explosion Rocks Port Harcourt

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

An explosion from the cooking gas section of a  filling station in Port Harcourt ,on Friday May 16, 2025, left over five persons seriously injured.

Similarly, no fewer than ten vehicles were damaged and burnt, when  part of the Nobpet Filling Station sited opposite Airforce Junction in Rivers State capital went up in flames following the loud explosion.

Most of the burnt vehicles belong to a transport firm which is located very close to the filling station.

Although no human casualties were recorded, eye witness accounts, however said that over 10 vehicles  parked at the loading bay of the transport outfit were torched by the inferno from the exploded part of the filling station.

The fire resulting from the explosion took the combined team of personnel of the Rivers state Fire Service, and those from the fire fighting unit of the Nigerian Air force some time to put out.

“We were all waiting for our turns to load our vehicles at the premises. I was, almost, getting ready to load mine from Port Harcourt to Abakaliki, Ebonyi state, when the incident occurred .

As I was trying to open my vehicle’s boot, I heard a loud sound and I fell down immediately.

I managed to get up, and ran away. But my vehicle was damaged. Some people, including me, sustained injuries. Luckily, no death was recorded.

Some of the injured persons whose cases were serious were taken to the hospital with an ambulance belonging to the Nigerian Air Force .

Also, the Fire Service personnel came to put out the inferno. But when they ran out of water, the Air Force also assisted with their own fire fighting equipment ,which eventually brought the situation under control”, one of the drivers whose vehicle was affected volunteered.

Curiously, while some passersby were trying to put out the inferno before the arrival of fire fighters,  most of the people within the precinct of the Filling Station frantically scampered for safety, thinking that the incident may have been the handiwork of either vandals or terrorists.

This Magazine gathered that the general air of fear and apprehension was caused by the precarious security situation in the state occasioned by the festering political crisis.

The crisis led to the proclamation of State of emergency in the state by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a development which has not really helped the situation.