Five Members Of Family Injured In Warri Gas Explosion

MR. JONATHAN EBATEFA ON HIS HOSPITAL BED

Three children, including a four-year-old girl were among five persons injured in an explosion that rocked a house in Warri, Delta State on Tuesday. The victims, who sustained various degrees of burns, were rushed to three hospitals in a part of the oil-rich town.

This is just as the Warri police area command allayed fears that the explosion was caused by a bomb, saying it was the result of a faulty gas cylinder.

The area commander, Rabiu Hussaini, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who reassured residents on the cause of the explosion, which generated panic in the town said, “I sent my men there and preliminary investigations showed it was a gas explosion”.

An occupant of the apartment where the incident took place, Mrs. Rukevwe Ebatefa, whose husband and children were injured confirmed that it was a gas explosion.

Narrating how it happened, Mrs. Ebatefa said: “My husband filled our gas cylinder on Monday night but we could not use it because it developed a fault. We wanted to use it again this morning (Tuesday) and the same problem occurred.

“My husband went to the kitchen to fix it, but the next thing we heard was an explosion”, she explained.

The victims, Mrs. Oghenemine Sunny and Favour, her four-year-old daughter, were taken to the nearby Island Hospital.

The head of the family, Mr. Jonathan Ebatefa, who was trying to fix the gas cylinder when it exploded, was admitted at the Estate Specialist Hospital, near Polokor Market, while his two children were taken to Warri Central Hospital.