Saturday 27th November 2021: The recent fire incidents in different parts of Port Harcourt assumed fatal dimension at the Bonny/Bille jetties of the Nembe Waterside, Port Harcourt City LGA.
Nnamdi Omoni, Police Public Relations Officer, Rivers Command, confirmed recovery of four bodies. A careless smoker reportedly ignited a wooden passenger/cargo boat offloading volumes of illegally refined fuel. Among the dead recovered were three children. They were siblings.

A witness who saw it all happen, in his own account, said, “my greatest pain were the children killed. A mother left her three children in the boat to go buy items onshore. They were burnt before she could return to save them. One of two victims said to have been rushed to hospital was said to have died, news just filtered now.”
Some Eyewitnesses also claim the death toll is far more. A witness simply identified as Johnson narrated, “Children, and many others are fear dead. The boat was parked beside 6 others, one of them loaded passengers, another with timber, crayfish, garri, kerosene and other food items waiting to take off.
“You know where they used to bring fuel and diesel, even the jetty water was covered with so much of the mix of highly inflammable products spilled on the water that any contact could spread wildfire. The spark from the cigarette caught the fire. All the seven boats and their contents were razed.”
Madam Elijah, another observer said, “A baby of a month old and the mother, roasted because of carelessness. People were offloading product from a boat and a man was smoking. I don’t know what he did, next thing we saw was fire burst from the offloading boat. Since the place is already saturated with oil and various fuel products, the fire became uncontrollable.
“Heavy wind helped spread the fire to umbrellas and tables of traders buying and selling. Fire service personnel who came in were driven away by traders for perceived late response when much damage had been done.”
Leader of Crayfish and fish sellers at the Nembe Bille water front, Henrietta Simeon lamented that their goods worth millions of naira were destroyed by the fire.
Rivers Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Peter Meede had, on assessment of the colossal damages announced that investigations have begun to find lasting solutions.
On the immediate action, he said, “The Rivers government has dedicated two telephone lines for people to report unwholesome practices in the state. We have warned severally that when you see and you don’t report, when it happens, it is your own property that would be destroyed, it is your own life that could be lost.
With the impunity with which indulgence in oil theft and ‘kpofire’ thrive in Rivers, only a very few persons have confidence in the responses from government and the police.