Warri-Itakpe Train Fire: No life loss, Service Continues, says NRC

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has said the Warri-Itakpe train that gutted fire in a viral video has been restored, no life loss and service will continue running normally.

The Managing Director, of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okhiria, confirmed the fire incidence, said the service would not be affected as the fire did not cause too serious havoc to impact the operations.

Okhiria added that the guard of WITS 03 reported a fire outbreak on CBX Power car and SP coach 00036 was detached and brought to Agbor station. The affected coach and the CBX have also been brought to Agbor. The cause of the fire is not known yet.

While addressing why NRC staff are using leave to extinguish the fire instead of fire extinguishers, he said the hand fire extinguishers at the stations were exhausted and they had to resort to self-help as the handheld fire extinguishers are not designed to respond to such type of fire.

On whether there is backup fire capability at each station to augment what is on the train, he said the NRC has firefighting equipment at each station but they cannot be moved on the rail tracks.

He explained that they haven’t been designed to be moved on tracks because fire incidences seldom happen on the coaches.