Inferno Tears Through Nigerian Market After Crowds Scoop Fuel From Fallen Tanker

Flames and towering black smoke swept through Oluku Market on the edge of Benin City in southern Nigeria’s Edo State on Thursday, October 15, after a fallen petrol tanker caught fire hours after residents had gathered to scoop the spilled fuel.

The footage, filmed by Asemota Jeremiah from on top of a vehicle, shows rows of market stalls with metal roofs flattened and burning beside a utility transformer, as a crowd of onlookers holds up phones and some people run from the flames. Loud bangs ring out from the fire. “Where is the woman’s gas station that used to be here?” the filmer asks in Pidgin, before shouting, “It has entered the market!” and “Many people must have died in this one.”

The tanker, loaded with petrol, overturned at about 7:30 a.m. on the busy Benin-Lagos Expressway in Ovia North-East, reportedly after hitting a damaged stretch of road while turning onto the Oluku bypass. Crowds rushed in with plastic containers to collect the leaking fuel despite warnings from soldiers, police and road safety officers. Police said the fire broke out at around 11:50 a.m., while the remaining fuel was being transferred into another truck. One witness said he saw a spark after a man rode off on a motorbike with a leaking 25-litre container of scooped petrol. The flames spread rapidly, engulfing two markets and about 30 other shops and burning several vehicles, including two tankers. About 2,000 traders were left counting losses reportedly worth billions of naira, and residents complained that firefighters took hours to arrive.

Casualty figures remain unclear. Police said eight people with burns were taken to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, and the road safety commander in Edo confirmed 10 people injured, while several people were feared dead. Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo, who visited the scene and burn victims at the hospital, blamed the tanker owner for transferring the fuel without safety precautions. “If this had not happened, there would not have been any fire incident,” he said, adding, “Before the explosion, people were scooping fuel.” He promised to rebuild the market and support traders who had lost their shops.

The disaster is the latest in a string of deadly tanker fires in Nigeria, where people often scoop fuel from overturned trucks despite government awareness campaigns. In January 2025, more than 100 people died when a tanker carrying about 60,000 liters of petrol overturned and exploded at Dikko junction in Niger State.