Fire guts filling station in Abuja

An overnight fire has burned down a filling station, Danmarna, at Lugbe, in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja.

According to an eyewitness, the fire whose cause could not be ascertained started at 10 pm and threw the very populated busy suburb into confusion as motorists and motorcycles scrambled to escape being caught in the fire.

The owner of the station, Alhaji Usman who spoke with The Guardian, said millions have been lost due to the fire which destroyed the station and the pumping machine among others.

“We are still taking stock of what we have lost but already we have lost millions but we are grateful that no lives were lost”

The manager of the station, Shehu Sani, said the destruction caused by the fire was quite devastating and this will impact the staff and the company.

“It is a very sad day for us. Although nobody was hurt and our tanker drivers were quick to drive the tankers away from being burned down by the fire, we are still going to suffer this loss,”

He lamented that despite several calls put through to the Federal Fire Service, (FFS), and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), fire service, they were unable to read the station until about one hour later when the fire had already caused much damage.

He called for fire stations to be built in areas with clusters of filling stations to improve the response time of the fire services in the event of any fire outbreak.