Ejiro Otarigho, the heroic driver, who drove a burning fuel tanker 500 metres to “safety”, said he wanted to plunge the burning tanker into the river, but that the steering got stuck.

“There was just one thought on my mind and that was to plunge the burning tanker into a river nearby,” Otarigho told BBC.

Vanguard reported that a major fire disaster was averted in Agbarho, along East-West Road in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, on Friday, when Otarigho drove his burning tanker to a safe place before it completely went up in flames.

An eyewitness, Roland, told Vanguard the courageous driver did almost 500 metres with the burning tanker before jumping out.

Another said but the driver’s heroics, lives, houses, cars and many more would have been destroyed.

It was scary — Driver

He narrated his experience to BBC: ”My [assistant] was the one who alerted me to the fact that our tanker was on fire. It was a scary ball of fire.”

Mr. Ejiro said he had just offloaded some of the contents of the tanker and was heading towards another point when tragedy struck.

With no time to waste, he told his assistant to get off and he sped off in the burning tanker amidst shrieks of fear and dismay from onlookers.

In the dangerous incident, any slight error of judgement from Mr. Otarigho or, a sudden explosion, could have resulted in total disaster.

“My intention was to drive to the river. When I got there the car steering got stuck and I couldn’t move any further.

“I said if I drive straight, the truck may fall and that may cause another problem. So I just have to park in the open space.”

Mr. Otarigho finally got the tanker to safety and onlookers can be seen in one of the videos dragging him away.

Vanguard News