Tanzania: 60 killed after fuel tanker caught fire

Sixty people died and 70 others were seriously injured in the town of Morogoro, Tanzania, on Saturday morning when a tanker caught fire.

According to reports, motorcyclists rushed to Msamvu to recover fuel leaks after the vehicle rolled over.

Others were food vendors along the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro highway.

The commander of the Morogoro Regional Police, Wilbroad Mutafungwa, confirmed the number of casualties.

CIGARETTE

The accident occurred about 200 meters from the Msamvu bus station in the town of Morogoro.

Some witnesses said that one of the people who went for the fuel had smoked a cigarette.

"It never happened in the city of Morogoro. The fuel sank about 100 meters along the road, "said Steven Kwebwe, Morogoro's regional commissioner.

Tanzanian People's Defense Force (TPDF) personnel and firefighters responded to the incident.

They took the bodies to the morgue of Morogoro Regional Hospital.

KENYA CASES

Oil tanker fires have become a common feature on the continent as poor people scramble for free fuel.

In January 2009, a spilled tanker exploded near Sachang'wan in Nakuru County, Kenya.



It has been said that the incident that killed at least 113 people and injured more than 200 people was due to a lighted cigarette or a spark illuminating the spilled fuel.

Several fires have occurred in Kenya, where petroleum products are still transported by road, but with a smaller number of casualties.

In January, a tank truck driver died after his truck caught fire in Narok after hitting cars.

BUSINESS OF NIGERIA

In Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa, incidents are also common.

In June 2018, an oil tanker exploded in Lagos during rush hour, killing at least nine people and injuring at least five.

In January, another oil tanker overturned and exploded in the Nigerian city, killing scores of people recovering a fuel leak.

In 2008, a bulldozer struck an oil tanker, causing an explosion that killed more than 100 people in Lagos.

A year earlier, at least 45 people were killed in the same city during an explosion while siphoning fuel from an underground pipeline.