The management of BUA Group has confirmed that three persons lost their lives when fire gutted its Sokoto Diesel Depot on Saturday.
BUA Group in a statement signed by Sada Suleiman, assistant director, admin. services, stated that the incident occurred while routine maintenance work was ongoing on one of the storage tanks by a third-party contractor.
The statement made available to Summit News reads: “We wish to use this medium to inform the public of an isolated fire incident which occurred at a diesel storage tank farm situated in the vicinity of one of our factories in Sokoto.
“This incident occurred whilst routine maintenance work was ongoing on one of the storage tanks by a third-party contractor.
“Immediately the incident occurred, our emergency management and mitigation services were alerted, and a swift response activated, which prevented any escalation of the incident or damage to our main plant and equipment.
“We are, however, able to confirm the regrettable loss of three workers of the third-party contractor, who were in the immediate area of the incident.
“Whilst we are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire outbreak at the depot which had adequate safety and control mechanisms in place, members of the Federal Fire Service, State Fire Service, and our Fire department are working together to put the incident under total control.
“We would also like to note that operations at the plant and production which were shut down in the aftermath of the incident as a precautionary and preventive measure, have since resumed at the factory – which was unaffected by the incident.
“We will keep the public informed… of any new development.”
