Dotun Oladipo, chief executive officer (CEO) of Premium Eagle Media Limited, publishers of Eagle Online, has narrated how his automobile mechanic died while trying to save cars from the recent fire outbreak under the Otedola Bridge in Lagos state.
Legit.ng reported that on Tuesday, March 11, a tanker laden with inflammable gas keeled over under the bridge.
The explosion affected nearby structures, including a church, a residential house, and a mechanic yard.
At least two people died while another six suffered varying degrees of injuries from the ensuing fire outbreak.
One of the deceased identified as Rotimi Olaleye, an automobile mechanic at one of the repair shops under the bridge.
Olaleye was Oladipo’s mechanic, and they had planned to meet at the repair shop before the incident occurred.
The publisher of Eagle Online said he, his wife and daughter escaped the explosion by whiskers.
Journalist recounts narrow escape as mechanic loses life
As reported by The Cable, the journalist recounted how he had arranged to pick up his wife’s car, which was in the mechanic’s care, on the night of the incident.
Rotimi Olaleye, the mechanic who died trying to protect his client’s vehicles.
He said that en route to the mechanic village, the family stopped to purchase drinking water from a supermarket and “took about 10 to 15 minutes doing that”.
Oladipo said people would later describe the brief detour “as my good fortune” because it delayed the family’s arrival at the mechanic village to see “a trailer coming from the CMD road that had apparently lost control”.
“I immediately turned another way from the mechanic village,” Oladipo recounted.
Oladipo added that while everyone escaped, the mechanic told his apprentices that he “needed to save his customers’ cars” amid the raging fire.
“I started dialling the number of the mechanic [I was supposed to pick my wife’s car from]to alert him to abandon the vehicle and run. He never picked up. It was about that time that we heard the explosion. Then his phone never rang again.
“What we found out later from his apprentices was that the mechanic told his boys to run for safety, but he informed them that he needed to save his customers’ cars.”
Fire razed INEC office in Delta
Legit.ng earlier reported that INEC has confirmed that one of its offices in Delta state caught fire on the afternoon of Monday, December 2, 2024.
According to INEC, the fire incident destroyed some electoral materials, including 706 ballot boxes, 50 election bags, 322 apron vests, and three electric power generators.
The electoral body further revealed that a sudden power surge caused the fire incident after a public power supply was restored.