Breaking: Black Christmas as fire outbreak claims 3 in Port Harcourt (Pictures)

The tragic fire incident which occurred on the Eve of Christmas day, 24th of December, around 11 pm, has left devastating memory including stolen vehicles, three cars burnt beyond recognition, burnt shops, and loss of lives.

The fire incident which started at the mountain of fire road Rumuola, Port Harcourt, left 7 persons dead.

An eyewitness, Mohammad, who works as a cobbler at Rumuola fly over told theportcitynews that the driver of the loaded tanker lost control of the vehicle when he tried to avoid hitting passersby while trying to align his tanker on the PH/Aba express road.

He said the tanker detached from the rest of the vehicle which moved about 2km close to peace park at Rumuola before making a halt.

The incident caused fuel leakage from the tanker which passed through the drainage from Rumuola and was channelled to some parts around mountain of fire Road, AM area at Elekahia and around mopol 19 in GRA.

Another eyewitness, James, said a car dealer around the area lost several cars as those called to help evacuate cars from his dealer shop, disappeared with the cars.

Adiza Umar, a local eatery owner at a mechanic village told our reporter Lorine Emenike, that she was inside her shop when she heard an unusual noise. She said she immediately sent her daughter to confirm where the strange noise was coming from.

Few minutes that her daughter went put to checks as she had instructed her, she ran back into the shop and was screaming fire, fire, which made all of them run out and it was confirmed that there was fire it and was approaching their shop.

Adiza, a mother of three, said she and her daughter quickly ran for safety, but her husband stood behind to rescue some of their properties in the shop.

Adiza said it’s indeed a miracle that her husband escaped the fire.

Adiza said the fire razed down three shops including hers and three cars, but no single life was lost, both at the scene of the tanker accident at Rumuola and its surrounding/ mountain of fire ministry.

Though she said around 8 am this morning she started hearing stories of a woman and her three children whom were burnt to death as a result of the fire, because they were fast asleep when the fire razed down their house at Rumukalagbor and somewhere around mopol 19 were a lot of damages were also recorded as a result of the fire.

Another witness, however, alleged that another four men were burnt to death by the fire incident

Also, Mr Christopher, a welding shop owner by mountain of fire road Rumuola, whose shop was also burnt by the fire said, he received a call at 3 am this morning that his shop was on fire.

He said he couldn’t make it on time because he is residing at Oyibo which is quite far from his shop. He said when he got to his shop by 5 am this morning, his shop and his working tools were all gutted by the fire.

The sad Mr Christopher said items that were burnt are his welding machine, filling machine and other items except for his generator which an unidentified good Samaritan was able to move to a far distance. The fire incident also pulled out the slab covering the Rumuola express road drainage.

Victims of the fire incidents used the medium to call on concerned agencies and organizations to come to their aid at this period of their great loss.