Two people suffered severe burn injuries when a diesel tanker plummeted off the Otedola Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Lagos and burst into a “ferocious inferno beneath the bridge”.
According to the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the “terrifying conflagration left two victims with extensive and severe burn injuries, necessitating their immediate extrication from the danger zone and urgent medical intervention”.
LASTMA’s Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, Adebayo Taofiq, stated that the agency’s emergency response team, alongside other relevant emergency management bodies, “swiftly mobilised to the scene and successfully rescued the two severely burnt victims from the perilous situation”.
“The injured victims were subsequently evacuated by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency’s Rescue Unit (LRU) to the Lagos State Accident and Emergency Centre, Toll Gate, where they were admitted for immediate medical attention,” Taofiq detailed in an official statement released on Monday evening.
He added that firefighters from the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service were engaged in “concerted firefighting operations to contain and extinguish the raging inferno, prevent its further escalation and avert additional casualties, as well as potential damage to surrounding infrastructure”.
The joint rescue and containment efforts involved multiple emergency and security entities, including the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency’s Rescue Unit (LRU), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Agency (Neighbourhood Watch), and officers from the Alausa Police Division.
Due to the intense blaze, motorists were compelled to find alternative routes to bypass the affected corridor, causing heavy traffic congestion across the bridge.
Monday’s explosion marks another incident in a long sequence of crashes along this busy section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, a primary artery connecting Lagos to various states across the South-West, South-East, and South-South regions. The corridor has seen frequent vehicular collisions, rollovers, and tanker explosions.
This tragedy closely follows a separate incident where a 33,000-litre tanker overturned on the Ojota Bridge in Lagos, spilling groundnut oil across the road due to a suspected brake failure.
