Cause of Goil fire revealed as death toll in twin disaster hits 200
GNFS Deputy PRO Billy Anaglatey explained the cause of the disaster
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says its preliminary investigations into the disastrous explosion at the GOIL fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, indicates that valves that were not properly tightened caused the fuel to gush out.
This allowed the fuel to float on the surface of the flood water, and then came into contact with fire in a distance of about 100 meters from the station.
The explosion thus occurred when the fire retraced the underground fuel tank with the loose-fitting valve where fuel was already gushing out.
The Deputy Public Relations Officer for the GNFS, Billy Anaglatey, revealed this to TV3's Bridget Otoo in an exclusive interview at the scene of the fire on Thursday.
“What actually might have initiated this whole fire situation at the Goil Filling Station is that, when it was raining, the people decided to take shelter there but the rain persisted. And as it was raining, the running water started rising and it was then that some of them detected the surface of the water was oily, but little did they know that it could result into fire.
“Our investigations continued and we realized that some of the valves were not properly closed so the running water was entering into the underground tank and because of density factor, it went under the fuel and pushed the fuel up. So the fuel was coming from the underground tank and the whole area was having the fuel on the surface of the running water. It is not all the fuel that comes out that was mixable with water; those that were not mixable with water, the compounds were just resting on the surface but it was a running water so it was able to move from the Goil Filling Station to over 100 meters, where it met a naked fire and traced it back to the filling station then the explosion happened".
Mr Anaglatey explained the cause of the disaster to TV3's Bridget Otoo
Mr. Billy Anaglatey further explained to TV3 why it was extremely difficult for most of the victims to escape.
“This type of fire is not a normal fire. Normal fire starts at a smaller stage, it then grows from maturity to decay level; so within these stages of the normal fire, you have an opportunity to escape if you see the fire in time. But with erratic or explosive fire of this nature, the moment the oil was on the surface of the water and then it picks any fire, it's going to run within the twinkling of an eye to the source of the fuel and it is going to be very erratic and rapid to explode. So with this type of fire, there is no way anybody would have an opportunity to get out of it and so that's why all of them were trapped in there and couldn't escape".
Death toll up
The Wednesday evening explosion that run deep into the dawn of Thursday, left in its wake a devastating havoc taking many lives and property, with the death toll now hitting 200.
Majority of the victims who were mostly stuck and burnt in their commercial and private cars, were taking refuge from the rains under the GOIL shed when the fire started.
Others were reportedly buying fuel with some in the fuel station's mini-supermarket.
Some of the victims, injured and dead, were also occupants of buildings very close to the fuel station.
The situation was worsened by marauding floods that came into contact with fuel. Security personnel are still cleaning debris at the fuel station area, as well as other parts of Accra severely hit by the floods.
Several injured persons with severe burns are still receiving treatment at the 37 Military and Police Hospitals, with the death toll still expected to rise.
President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday declared three days of national mourning for victims of both the flood and the fire incident, but has announced some drastic measures in the coming days to tackle the perennial floods.
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