Death toll rises in Accra filling station explosion tragedy

The death toll from Wednesday night’s filling station explosion in Accra is now thought to stand at over 100 people.
The explosion occurred at a Goil filling station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the capital city as rush-hour commuters trying to escape the downpour when flood water swept stored oil towards a fire, according to a fire official.
Billy Anaglate, a spokesman for the Ghana Fire Service, said the emergency services had recovered dozens of bodies from the scene.
Referring to the death toll, Anaglate said: “We are still trying to salvage the site of the accident before we can come out with an accurate figure.”
He said flooding “caused the diesel and petrol to flow away from the gas station, and fire from a nearby house led to the explosion”.
Graphic footage broadcast on national television showed corpses being piled into the back of a pickup truck and other charred bodies trapped amid the debris. Neighbouring buildings that had caught fire burned into the night as flood waters around the site hampered recovery efforts. Images from the scene showed the remains of at least six vehicles under a charred petrol station canopy.

President Mahama blamed human activity as a contributory factor to the flooding from the heavy downpour of Wednesday.
He said government officials were working throughout the night to offer support to victims and they will take measures to make sure it never happens again.
“Often when these measures are drastic, you have a lot of sympathy and pressure not to take those measures but I think that the time has come for us to remove houses out of water ways and the public should understand that it is necessary to save everybody else.”
Credit: Ghanaweb & The Guardian