By Oloye Ray
For a few terrifying seconds, death appeared to be waiting at Feesu Junction.
A tanker loaded with diesel was on fire.
The flames were growing.
The filling station was nearby. Shops were close. Residential buildings stood within reach.
One wrong move could have turned an ordinary Thursday afternoon in Iwo, Osun State, into a tragedy remembered for generations.
Then, instead of running away from the fire, Alagbe Hezekiah drove towards danger.
The 38-year-old tanker driver from Ogbomoso had a choice: save himself or try to save others.
He chose the lives of people he did not even know.
WHEN THE FIRE STARTED
It was Thursday, September 17, 2026.
Hezekiah had arrived at a filling station opposite Lado Filling Station along the Iwo-Ibadan Expressway to supply diesel.
The hose had been connected to the tanker.
The offloading process had begun.
Then suddenly, fire erupted from the truck.
Nobody knew immediately what caused it.
He and his motor boy grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to fight the flames.
But the fire was stronger.
It spread rapidly.
The extinguisher could no longer contain it.
And suddenly, Hezekiah realised the real danger was no longer just the tanker.
The fire was moving towards the filling station.
Nearby businesses were at risk.
Homes were within reach.
And people were everywhere.
His apprentice, overwhelmed by fear, fled.
Hezekiah could have done the same.
He could have jumped down and run.
Nobody would have blamed him.
But he looked at the burning tanker and thought about what could happen if it remained where it was.
Then he made a decision that would change the story of that day.
HE JUMPED INTO THE BURNING TRUCK
He climbed into the tanker.
The vehicle was already on fire.
The danger was enormous.
But Hezekiah started driving.
He drove the burning tanker away from the filling station, away from the crowd and away from the buildings.
“I thought of what I can do to avert putting lives of many and properties at risk,” he later recounted.
“I drove the vehicle out of the petrol station.”
But where could he take a burning tanker loaded with diesel?
He scanned the area.
He needed somewhere without people.
Somewhere where, if the worst happened, innocent lives would not be caught in the disaster.
He chose a riverbank.
“I decided to drive to a riverbank where there will be no casualties,” he said.
It was a decision that came with no guarantee that he would survive.
“I took the bold step with the conviction that I may survive or be consumed and die with the incident.”
Then came the words that perhaps best explain why his story has touched so many people:
“However, sacrificing my life to save properties and other people’s lives would be better than risking others with the incident.”
THE JOURNEY THROUGH FIRE
Imagine driving while flames are consuming the vehicle behind you.
Imagine knowing that the tanker you are driving is carrying diesel.
Imagine knowing that one mistake could cost you your own life.
That was Hezekiah’s reality.
Yet he kept driving.
Eyewitnesses around Odo-Ori Market watched as the burning tanker moved away from the populated area.
He eventually reached an uninhabited riverbank.
There, he detached the truck’s head from the burning tank.
The immediate threat to the surrounding community had been removed.
No life was lost.
A potentially devastating incident had been stopped from becoming something much worse.
WHO IS THE MAN BEHIND THE COURAGE?
Hezekiah is not a newcomer behind the wheel.
He has been driving tankers since 2004.
More than two decades on the road.
Yet he said he had never experienced anything like what happened that Thursday.
He is a 38-year-old father? No — he is simply a tanker driver, an Ogbomoso indigene, and a man who found himself in a moment when courage mattered more than fear.
His profession placed him behind the wheel.
But on September 17, it was his decision that placed him in the path of danger.
Across Nigeria, people have since described him as a hero.
But perhaps Hezekiah’s greatest reward is simpler.
People went home that day.
Businesses remained standing.
Families were not forced to mourn.
Children who knew nothing about what happened continued playing.
And an entire community escaped what could have become a terrible disaster.
HIS MESSAGE AFTER SURVIVING
Rather than celebrate himself alone, Hezekiah has used the incident to appeal to governments in Osun and Oyo States to fix deplorable roads.
He also urged fellow tanker drivers to always put human lives and safety first.
His story is therefore not only about a man who drove a burning tanker.
It is about a moment when one person’s courage stood between danger and an entire community.
On a day when fire came looking for victims, Alagbe Hezekiah chose to become the man who carried the danger away.
He drove into the flames so others could live.
Ogbomoso gave Nigeria a driver.
Iwo found a saviour.
And on September 17, 2026, Alagbe Hezekiah reminded us that sometimes, a hero does not wear a uniform.
Sometimes, he simply holds the steering wheel when everyone else is running away.
God bless Alagbe Hezekiah.
