At least two people were killed after a pipeline fire outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria on Thursday morning.
A spokesman for the Lagos state emergency management agency said oil bunkering activities caused the incident in the Ijegun area.
“But it is pertinent to know that we are able to rescue 12 people alive, four are now at LASUTH (Lagos State University Teaching Hospital) receiving treatment and eight are being taken to the burns unit at Gbagada.
But it is pathetic to know that in our preliminary investigation, we gathered that we have two mortalities but the operation is still ongoing and by the time we finish the operation we will be able to give you the comprehensive report”, said Lagos State Emergency Management Agency official, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu.
An eyewitness recounts the chilling incident.
“That point you see burning now, it is the actual point where the operation happened so that’s why you are seeing this fire, it is not just caused by an ordinary person, it is just caused by these bad guys so it pass through this gutter down to the canal. So the fire, you can go there and see by yourself. You can see all the whole shop along the gutter where the product has passed through all of them got burnt even people got burnt. Some are in the hospital now. People who are residents living inside about four (inaudible) away from here”, Jude Odiah said.
Lagos state firefighters were at hand to quench the inferno. These incidents occur relatively in one of Africa’s largest oil exporter.
While fuel is cheap, many live in extreme poverty in Africa’s most populous nation.
On Tuesday, July 2, more than 50 people were killed when a fuel truck spillage in the southeast of Nigeria caught fire.