The burnt tanker
THREE PEOPLE, including a tanker driver and his mate, have been confirmed dead after a tanker vehicle, filled with diesel, exploded after falling heavily on its side.
The explosion, which was deafening, was shortly followed by an inferno, which burnt about 15 houses and all the valuable items in them around 2pm on Monday.
The heartbreaking incident happened at Onyina Nofo, a small farming community with about 500 population in the Ahafo Ano South West District of the Ashanti Region.
The tanker, said to be travelling at a top speed, from the Kumasi direction to Tepa, after initiating a sharp curve, rammed into a stationery Ford car and fell on its side, starting the fire.
Eye witnesses said the fire traveled very fast after the explosion, compelling the people living in the town to ran helter-skelter to prevent being consumed by the fire.
Unfortunately, the driver in charge of the tanker vehicle and his mate, as well as a two-year-old child, who could not run fast from harm’s path, were burnt beyond recognition.
The deceased persons were identified as Mohammed Sumaila, Habib Moro and Nana Owusu, a two-year-old.
Reports indicated that several people in the community had their houses and their lifetime belongings torched and have become homeless.
Patrick Adusei, the DCE for Ahafo Ano South West, told journalists that the surviving victims were made to spend the night in a school, a church and the chief’s palace on Monday.
Meanwhile, NADMO, led by its boss, Eric Nana Agyeman-Prempeh, has since sent some relief items such as mattresses, clothes and others to support the victims in the interim.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi