Death toll in Freetown fuel tanker explosion rises to 131

Officials say dozens of injured are still being treated in hospitals, of whom 19 are in critical condition.

Freetown, Sierra Leone – death toll a Devastating fuel tanker explosion In the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, the number reached 131 last week, according to officials.

Mohamed Lamrana Bah, director of communications at the government’s National Disaster Management Agency, said Wednesday that another 63 people were still being treated at four Freetown hospitals, of whom 19 were in critical condition.

NS Tragedy occurred on Friday at a busy junction in Wellington, East Freetown, when a fuel tanker collided with a truck, which later caught fire.

Victims included motorbike drivers who rushed to collect fuel leaking from tankers, roadside women traders and passengers stranded in minibuses supported along a usually busy road.

Posters with pictures of the missing and dead have been pasted on the walls and buildings around the scene. More than 70 bodies were unrecognizable, and relatives of the missing told Al Jazeera they now believe their loved ones were among them.

Crowds attend a mass burial for the victims of a fuel tanker explosion in Freetown [Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

Large numbers of people attended a mass burial on Monday, where nearly 75 unidentified bodies were buried in a cemetery, including victims of the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak and the 2017 mudslide, the country’s worst natural disaster that hit 1,100 More people were killed. ,

Government officials said tissue samples taken from each dead body would be sent abroad for testing.

“corpse” [were] numbered and tissue samples [were] Counted even before being taken for burial. These are being sent abroad for DNA testing and it may take a few months for the results to come back,” said Austin Cannon, Sierra Leone Country Director for Concern Worldwide, a humanitarian organization helping with the process.

“The graves are also being counted so that we can identify the people in the coming months. We hope this will bring some relief to those who have lost their loved ones in this horrific and heartbreaking tragedy.”

Coffins of victims of fuel tanker explosion lined during mass funerals in Freetown [Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

In the early days after the blast, doctors said they lacked supplies to treat the injured. Al Jazeera saw a doctor meeting potential donors of supplies inside a ward in one of the city’s hospitals, directly near some of those who had suffered burns.

The Disaster Management Agency’s Bah said that Sierra Leone has suffered major disasters before in terms of the death toll, “but what makes it very unique … [is] For people to be caught in flames and burned beyond recognition – this is unprecedented for this country”.

The World Health Organization promised 6.6 tonnes of emergency medical supplies. Bah said several countries have also offered to send burn specialists and clinical specialists. A blood campaign has also taken place, encouraging locals to donate to “rescue the victims of the Freetown explosion”.

Back at the blast site, the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society was registering relatives and spouses of the dead and wounded, many of whom are hoping for government assistance.

“We are of the opinion at this point in time that it’s not really time to start making promises for what we can do for them, but we will certainly come up with something,” Bah said.

He said identifying the right families is a slow process, because of concerns that people with no connection to the incident may make false claims out of poverty or desperation.

“We want to take our time so that we have workable strategies,” Bah said.