{"id":459,"date":"2026-09-19T03:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/?p=459"},"modified":"2026-09-19T03:54:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T03:54:04","slug":"tanker-explosion-near-paul-boit-school-leaves-3-dead-23-with-severe-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"TANKER EXPLOSION NEAR PAUL BOIT SCHOOL LEAVES 3 DEAD, 23 WITH SEVERE BURNS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At least three people have been confirmed dead and 23 others hospitalized with severe burns after a petroleum tanker overturned and exploded near Paul Boit High School along the Eldoret-Webuye highway on Thursday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tanker, which was ferrying petrol and diesel, crashed at Paul Boit Kapkong in the Juakali area before locals converged on the scene to siphon fuel, according to police and eyewitness accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confirming the incident, Uasin Gishu County Police Commander Wilberforce Sichirani said search and recovery operations were ongoing to establish the full casualty toll, noting that, “while the exact number of fatalities remains unconfirmed, search and recovery efforts are underway.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kenya Red Cross Society, which flagged the incident as a mass casualty event at 10:37 p.m., said in a statement on X that a mass casualty incident has occurred along the Eldoret-Webuye road near Paul Boit Secondary School, following a petroleum tanker explosion adding that “our teams are on the ground responding in collaboration with Kenya Police and firefighters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eyewitnesses described a scene of panic whereby a Boda boda rider Joseph Kibet from Juakali, who was among the first at the scene, said locals rushed with jerrycans moments before the fireball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People ran with jerrycans thinking they will get free fuel. Within minutes there was fire everywhere. People were screaming, we could not even get close,” Kibet recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another resident, Mary Jepchirchir, whose homestead is near the school, said the explosion shook her house: “I thought it was a bomb. The flames were so high we could see them from our compound.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All survivors were rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the casualties from the Turbo explosion receiving treatment at MTRH<\/mark><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Giving an update on Friday morning, MTRH Senior Director of Clinical Services Dr. Andrew Wandera said “the facility has received 23 patients, out of which two passed away on arrival as one died today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the condition of the victims, Dr. Wandera explained that the ones who went to ICU have 25 per cent burns and above. Some had burns in the face that sometimes compromise breathing, forcing medics to intubate three of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTRH Chief Executive Officer Dr. Philip Kirwa said the hospital’s disaster response team had been activated and appealed for blood donations to support treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At least three people have been confirmed dead and 23 others hospitalized with severe burns after a petroleum tanker overturned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blazepointmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}