- Station attendants suffer first degree burns, placed on danger list in hospital
A director of O’Ambulance Services in Osun State, Olori Opeyemi Omobolawa Fola, has lost her life in a fire incident that occurred at Grace Cooking Gas Station in Osogbo, the state capital, where she had gone to refill her empty gas cylinder.
According to eyewitnesses, the director had visited the gas outlet located at the Ofatedo area in Osogbo on December 9 to refill her empty cylinder. She was said to have received a telephone call at the point the cylinder was being refilled, a situation that was said to have caused an explosion and fire outbreak.
Immediately Olori Fola picked her call, there was an explosion at the gas outlet and the director and some gas attendants were said to have been engulfed in flames and subsequently consumed in the fire.
A trader running a shop beside the cooking gas station said there was a bang before the outlet went up in flames.
The trader, who simply identified himself as Debo, said he had heard a loud noise and rushed out in panic to see what had happened.
He said, “I was in my shop around 5:30pm, when I suddenly heard a loud noise. I was startled and rushed out to check what had happened. I discovered, to my shock, that the gas shop had gone up in flames!
“Some people in the area gathered and made efforts to quench the fire. They succeeded in rescuing a woman (Olori Fola) and some gas attendants. They were immediately rushed to a hospital.”
I was in my shop around 5:30pm, when I suddenly heard a loud noise. I was startled and rushed out to check what had happened. I discovered to my shock, that the gas shop had gone up in flames!
It was gathered that the victims sustained severe burns. However, after about three days at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, where Olori Fola was rushed to, she was last Wednesday confirmed dead.
The other victims, as at the time of filing this report, were still hospitalised and critically ill.
Experts have, therefore, advised people against picking or making calls near gas stations, especially when a cylinder is being refilled.
Meanwhile, a group in the state, Progressives e-Group, has described the incident as devastating, adding that it received Olori Fola’s death with shock and disbelief.
A statement issued by the group reads in part, “We received with great shock and total disbelief, the unexpected death of a woman of many phenomenal parts – Olori Opeyemi Omobolawa Fola (popularly called Olori Fola) in the early hours of Wednesday.
“Olori Fola’s lifestyle exemplified hard work, humility, selflessness, forthrightness and remarkable motherhood. We are bold to say, without any equivocation, that Olori Opeyemi Fola was a sound technocrat, cool-headed administrator, altruistic fellow and firm believer in the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as well as in the rapid growth and development of the State.
“We can sense the level of agony and dejection the family of Fola is experiencing now. However, we urge them to take solace in the fact that she was able to make indelible marks while on earth, which will continue to be ascribed to her, even after death.
“We pray to Almighty God to grant the family, friends and associates of the deceased, the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. Good night Olori Opeyemi
Fola.”
