Lagos: Two Dead, Vehicles Destroyed As Pipeline Explosion Fire Razes Ijegun Commununity
LAGOS JULY 4TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Two people have been killed and dozens of vehicles burnt on Thursday after thieves breached a fuel pipeline causing an explosion, emergency services said.
The incident, which happened in the early hours in the Ijegun area of Lagos, is the latest in a long string of such accidents.
“We have recovered two burnt bodies and rescued eight others with severe burns,” Lagos State Emergency Mangement Agency (LASEMA) head Femi Osanyintolu told newsmen.
He said more than 30 vehicles caught fire, adding that the inferno was caused by vandals who broke open a state-run pipeline in order to steal petrol.
Security agents intercepted the thieves as they were transferring the petrol to their trucks, Osanyintolu said.
“In a bid to escape arrest, the vandals spilled some of the petrol into drainages and set it on fire,” he said.
“The fire then spread back to the point where the vandals had siphoned the fuel and exploded,” he said.
Osanyintolu said firefighters were battling to put out the inferno, adding that the toll might rise further.
Ibrahim Farinloye, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told AFP the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which owns the pipeline, had been informed.
“Vandals are responsible for the incident and some of them are affected in the inferno,” he said.
He said the area had been cordoned off, and called on the NNPC to shut down the pipeline to cut off the fire.
Footages all over social media capture the flames and people running helter-skelter in a bid to avoid being caught up in the fire.
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Posted by News Rangers
on Jul 4 2019. Filed under National.
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