BUA Group Confirms Death Of Three Persons From Explosion Near Facility In Sokoto

Nigerian cement-producing company, the BUA Cement Company has reacted to an explosion, which reportedly killed three persons near its factory in Sokoto State on Friday. 

The group in a statement on Saturday confirmed the deaths, saying the explosion was from a diesel storage tank.

SaharaReporters earlier today reported that the explosion took place around 9:00am on Friday, and despite the combined efforts of the federal and state fire services, the fire raged.

“One of the tanks contained about two million litres of diesel while the other one contained black oil of the same quantity,” a source had said.

Another source had said, “There is another tank which we are trying to protect against the explosion.”

In a statement, the BUA group said it could not still ascertain the cause of the fire.

The statement read; "We wish to use this medium to inform the public of an isolated fire incident which occurred at a diesel storage tank farm situated in the vicinity of one of our factories in Sokoto. This incident occurred whilst routine maintenance work was ongoing on one of the storage tanks by a third-party contractor.

"Immediately the incident occurred, our emergency management and mitigation services were alerted, and a swift response activated, which prevented any escalation of the incident or damage to our main plant and equipment.

"We are however able to confirm the regrettable loss of three workers of the third-party contractor, who were in the immediate area of the incident.

"Whilst we are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire outbreak at the depot which had adequate safety and control mechanisms in place, members of the Federal Fire Service, State Fire Service, and our fire department are working together to put the incident under total control.

"We would also like to note that operations at the plant and production which were shut down in the aftermath of the incident as a precautionary and preventive measure, have since resumed at the factory - which was unaffected by the incident. We will keep the public informed through this medium of any new development.”