BUA Cement Plc revealed that it has resumed operations at its Sokoto factory after the explosion at the facility on Saturday.
BizWatch Nigeria had reported that the incident killed three people, injured others, while valuables and equipment of the company were destroyed.
The Assistant Director of Admin Services, Sada Suleiman via a statement said the incident occurred during routine maintenance work on one of its storage tanks.
Suleiman said the swift response of the emergency management and mitigation services prevented any damage to the main plant and equipment.
He then said that the exact cause of the fire outbreak is still unknown.
“We wish to use this medium to inform the public of an isolated fire incident which occurred at a diesel storage tank farm situated in the vicinity of one of our factories in Sokoto,” Suleiman said.
“This incident occurred whilst routine maintenance work was ongoing on one of the storage tanks by a third-party contractor.
“Immediately the incident occurred, our emergency management and mitigation services were alerted, and a swift response activated, which prevented any escalation of the incident or damage to our main plant and equipment.
“We are however able to confirm the regrettable loss of 3 workers of the third-party contractor, who were in the immediate area of the incident.
“Whilst we are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire outbreak at the depot which had adequate safety and control mechanisms in place, members of the Federal Fire Service, State Fire Service, and our Fire department are working together to put the incident under total control.
“We would also like to note that operations at the plant and production which were shut down in the aftermath of the incident as a precautionary and preventive measure, have since resumed at the factory – which was unaffected by the incident.”
BUA Cement Plc vowed to keep the public informed of new developments.
