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100+ dead In Lagos pipeline fire

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At least 100 people have been killed by an explosion on an oil pipeline in a northern suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, Red Cross officials say.

According to the humanitarian group, the explosion was caused by road construction machinery piercing a pipe carrying refined fuel through a village on the outskirts of Lagos on Thursday.

Sule Maicube, the Red Cross official, told Al Jazeera that the flames from the fire spread through nearby homes and a school.

He said: "At least 20 people have now been taken to hospital."

"The fire occurred in a residential area, and it is still continuing. The [surrounding] buildings are in flames."

The fire has raged for at least seven hours.

Sarah Simpson, a journalist speaking from Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, said that very little has changed regarding the country's attempts to avoid disasters that can occur around oil pipelines.

She said: "Investment and money has not been put into making these pipelines safer."

Witnesses said local people were trying to help the fire service to put out the blaze, using sand and water.

Pipeline fires are common in Nigeria. More than 400 people died in two pipeline explosions in Lagos in 2006, and at least 40 died in December last year.

Some fires are started when residents attempt to take oil from damaged or sabotaged pipelines.
kushan

8 responses // 100+ dead In Lagos pipeline fire

  • Amazing how oil pipeline damage has increased dramatically in recent months. Makes you wonder who is really behind it-You figure it out who benefits.
    cubbingabout
  • http://current.com/items/77541711_rebels_in_the_pipelin...
    Many of these explosions are caused by illegal oil bunkering. There is a huge black market for oil in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, which is becoming increasingly unstable. Aside from sabotaging oil facilities, many believe militant groups there bunker oil to help purchase weapons and fund operations. Check out "Rebels in the Pipeline" for an in depth look at the situation in the Niger Delta.
    dmfoster
  • http://current.com/items/86999401_lagos_la_vida_loca
    And for more on Lagos, check out "Lagos la Vida Loca":
    dmfoster
  • http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL158493212...
    Image...
    At least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by a bulldozer caught fire and exploded on Thursday in a village near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos, the Red Cross said.

    The fireball engulfed homes and schools at Ijegun village in the Lagos district of Alimosho, and many of the dead, who included schoolchildren, were killed in the ensuing stampede as people fled in panic from the flames.

    "About 100 people have so far been confirmed dead from the fire. We have so far rescued more than 20 people with injuries and taken them to hospital for treatment," a Red Cross official at the scene told Reuters.

    The disaster was the latest in a series of pipeline explosions or blazes caused by damage or theft which have killed more than 1,200 people since 2000 in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter and Africa's top producer.

    The pipeline rupture at Ijegun, a village about 50 km (30 miles) from the centre of the sprawling coastal city of Lagos, occurred during work to build a road. A bulldozer moving earth struck the pipeline buried beneath the surface.

    "I was returning home when I suddenly saw sparks of fire from where the grader (earthmover) was working," local resident John Egbowon said.

    The fuel leaking from the broken pipe caught fire and exploded, sending people fleeing in panic.
    kushan
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    Sad how somewhere around $1 trillion dollars worth of oil wealth has been produced there in the last 40 years, yet the region itself is much worse off than it was 40 years ago.

    I wonder if there has ever been a case where something valuable has been found in a foreign people's land and the locals haven't ended up much worse. Maybe the Middle East, but I'm sure we'll make them pay eventually.
    shbhanda
  • dang. my hart goes out to all lost. and all these deaths for what? oil. and where was that oil going? i think you can fill in the blank.
    currentkid
  • oil kills.
    blackdaylight
  • To current kid; The line contained a finished product, most likely diesel, petrol, or kerosene. The local people use it to fuel cars, motorbikes, and cook stoves. Even small quantities are valuable due to the massive widespread poverty here.
    MoonLoon

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