The heroic driver Ejiro Otarigho, who did almost 500 metres with the burning tanker before jumping out to “safety”, said he wanted to plunge the burning tanker into the river, only the steering got stuck.

“There was just one thought on my mind and that was to plunge the burning tanker into a river nearby,” Otarigho told BBC.

Recall that a major fire disaster was averted in Agbarho, along East-West Road in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, on Friday, when Otarigho drove his burning tanker to a safe place before it completely went up in flames.

An eyewitness, Roland, said but for the driver’s heroics, lives, houses, cars and many more would have been destroyed.

He narrated his experience to BBC: ”My [assistant] was the one who alerted me to the fact that our tanker was on fire. It was a scary ball of fire.”

Mr Ejiro said he had just offloaded some of the contents of the tanker and was heading towards another point when tragedy struck.

With no time to waste, he told his assistant to get off and he sped off in the burning tanker amidst shrieks of fear and dismay from onlookers.

In the dangerous incident, any slight error of judgement from Mr. Otarigho or, a sudden explosion, could have resulted in total disaster.

“My intention was to drive to the river. When I got there the car steering got stuck and I couldn’t move any further.

“I said if I drive straight, the truck may fall and that may cause another problem. So I just have to park in the open space.”

Mr. Otarigho finally got the tanker to safety and onlookers can be seen in one of the videos dragging him away.


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