By Alpha Abu
Many people died after a tanker truck carrying petrol, which it was about to discharge at a nearby gas station, was rammed into by a granite loaded truck, and later exploded, creating huge fire balls, as people were busy scooping and filling up buckets and jerry cans of the leaking fuel along the Wellington/Calaba town highway last Friday night.
Thomas Kamara a Tailor close to the area of the tragedy spoke of horrific scenes as balls of flames swept through scores of vehicles trapped in a slowly moving traffic, engulfing them and their occupants. Some died in their seats. A nightclub by the roadside with revellers inside was engulfed by the raging inferno, as were shops, and dwelling houses on a side street leading to the nearby Old Wharf community. Screaming people ran for their lives as the fires swept through the vicinity. Others, hysterically screaming, helplessly watched the carnage from safer distance. “The fire balls were chasing people. It was scary; many have died from this accident”, Kamara told Politico.
The head of the newly established National Disaster Management Agency, Lt. Gen. Rtd. Brima Bureh Sesay from the scene of the accident, made frantic calls to the Sierra Leone Military, which immediately dispatched trucks and personnel to help take the bodies to the Connaught hospital morgue. Hospital authorities are yet to give exact figures of those that have so far died, with close to 100 reported already, but there are fears the death toll will rise.
Some one hundred injured people were taken to four hospitals, Connaught, 34 Military, Choithram, and Emergency, where doctors have been working in shifts, round the clock. The tragedy happened along a busy stretch that demarcates Wellington from Calaba Town, two densely populated areas, East of Freetown. By early Saturday morning, the Police had sealed off the area that still had burning smell in the air, and diverted traffic onto Old Road. Fire engines and ambulances stood by. Charred remains of vehicles including those at a Car Centre, and motor bikes, were at the scene. Earlier video footage of the scene before the explosion that was circulated on social media showed mostly young men scooping the petrol. Many of those who died on the spot were burnt beyond recognition, a reasonable number of them believed to be taxi bikers. It will take a while for family members to know their loved ones died in the tragedy, or whether some will ever be identified.
Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh that night and into early Saturday morning visited the main Connaught hospital that had taken in most of the injured, as well as the other hospitals. Later on Saturday morning, standing in the back of a pickup truck with mounted speakers, at two locations within the accident area, the Vice President addressed hundreds of people over what he described as a national disaster.
He acknowledged the call of duty demonstrated by the doctors, nurses and other health personnel, which he personally witnessed on the night of the incident as they showed up in their numbers, to offer their services to the injured. He thanked them for their selfless service.
He also on behalf of the President and Government extended condolences to the relatives of the victims and promised assistance to family members of the deceased. He said drugs were being made available to all those being treated in the hospitals. He advised the people just as Community Radio Stations in the area have been busy doing, for them not to store the fuel in their homes, underscoring its highly inflammable nature.
The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio was headed for the Extra-Ordinary session of ECOWAS leaders in Ghana from the COP 26 UN Climate Summit in Scotland, when the accident occurred and had to cancel the trip and return home Saturday evening. The President on arrival in Freetown went straight to see those admitted at Connaught and 34. He told journalists how impressed he was by the level of professionalism and commitment manifested by the health workers. On Sunday morning, he addressed a large crowd at the site of the accident, expressing his deepest sympathy to bereaved families and the injured. President Bio also went to see the wounded at Emergency hospital. It was the first accident of that kind to have ever happened in Sierra Leone. A nation is in grief.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health officials on Sunday evening received at the Freetown International Airport, Lungi, one tonne of medical supplies for victims of the fire. It was part of 6 tonnes of supplies designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for injured persons.
WHO Country representative, Dr. Steven Shongwe handed over the supplies to Health Minister Dr. Austin Demby. The support could not have come at a better time as some of the victims are believed to be suffering from 90 degrees burns.
Copyright © Politico Online (08/11/21)
