Tanker Spill Ignites Destroying Entire Village, 230 Feared Dead

Published : July 04, 2010 :: 10:07:12 [ 1,806 views ]

A fully laden fuel truck (long-haul tanker) has crashed and exploded in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday. At present, it is unknown what caused the accident, however the death toll stands at 230 as of Sunday morning.

DR Congo, the 3^rd of July 2010 [PDN]: At present, the deceased have been collected by rescue and aid workers to be buried in two mass graves on the outskirts of the village. Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the accident, which involved a long-haul fuel tanker travelling from Tanzania.

The truck crashed as it passed through the village of Songe, approximately 70km South of the town of Bukavu in South Kivu, spilling vast quantities of fuel onto the ground. Reportedly, a large majority of the deceased, including local villagers and military personnel, died when the spill ignited as they were trying to collect the valuable commodity.

Others died within the village cinema, watching the World Cup, with some also trapped in their homes as the massive quantity of leaked fuel ignited. The village of Songe, consisting of wooden, thatched houses, has been destroyed in the resultant blaze.

UN peacekeepers, aid workers and soldiers have been working around the clock to clean-up the scene, including carrying over 230 dead bodies to two mass graves outside the village. Dozens of injured have been evacuated to hospitals in the towns of Bukavu and Uvira with over 190 confirmed injured in the incident.

South Kivu’s Vice-Governor stated the situation in Sange as “terrible” further explaining, “There are lots of dead bodies on the streets. The population is in terrible shock, no-one is crying or speaking.”

Local villager Tondo Sahizira [28] told the AFP news agency, “Petrol began to leak out but instead of fleeing people came to collect the fuel. A few minutes later there was an explosion, flames burst from the truck and spread very quickly.”

Allegedly, five Pakistani peacekeepers in the are at the time of the accident had warned residents to flee the area and not to collect the spilled fuel.

Kiza Ruvinira, a mother of three, told Reuters news agency, “My children were watching the football match in the cinema and then they ran out to see the petrol. I went out to see what happened and I found my three children’s bodies myself. I don’t know how to go on.”

The latest death toll stands at 230 with another 196 people confirmed injured. Tragically, The Red Cross state that at least 61 children and 36 women are among the deceased.

Comments

Rab

said :

When you don't know when you'll eat again and an opportunity presents itself to get something free, that can be sold on for food or money, any risk is worth it, in their minds. Perhaps they didn't think it was stupid at the time, after all their motive was survival.
Very sad and avoidable loss of life.

Email : mybiz@gmail.com Date : 2010-07-04 22:33:40

Bob

said :

Most of the dead did not die immediately from the crash, the explosion happened later while they were trying to collect (steal) fuel from the leaking tanker. Darwin said the most intelligent will survive and reproduce, and these were obviously not the brightest people in the World. In other words, do something stupid and die, life works that way.

Email : Bob@haha.com Date : 2010-07-04 12:04:12

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