- How cooking gas retail outlets expose Nigerians to danger
Many households in Nigeria have embraced the use of cooking gas in their day-to-day activities as a result of the high price of kerosene. The development has however seen many cooking gas retail outlets springing up like weeds in residential areas. GBENGA ADERANTI looks at the development and the attendant danger.
Since kerosene became unaffordable for many Nigerian households, attention has shifted to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) otherwise known as cooking gas. As the number of consumers grows, the number of dealers has also continued to increase.
At the time of writing this report, a litre of kerosene costs N1,206.050 while a gallon costs N4,565.394. A kilogramme of cooking gas, on the other hand, was N850.
According to global petrol prices.com, the average price of kerosene around the world is 1.07 U.S. Dollars per litre. However, there is a substantial difference in these prices among countries. As a general rule, richer countries have higher prices while poorer countries and the countries that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices.
In November 2021, the Federal Government said it was set to procure 10 million gas cylinders for marketers to distribute to end-users, which would be exchanged from various homes. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Mr. Dayo Adesina, disclosed this at a two-day LPG sensitisation and awareness campaign organised by the National LPG Expansion Plan, Office of the Vice President in conjunction with the Delta State Government. The sensitization and awareness campaign was held in Asaba, Delta State capital.
Mr Adesina said there was no reason why anyone should use firewood, kerosene, or charcoal for cooking, especially when the country was blessed with an abundance of gas.
As at 2019, about three million Nigerians had adopted the use of LPG, according to the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA).
The President, NLPGA, Nuhu Yakubu, said the LPG industry had grown by over 1,000 percent between 2007 and 2017.
While the presence of cooking gas dealers in every nook and cranny may be a good development as it provides job opportunities, the inherent danger this development has brought with it is giving some residents concern.
An investigation carried out by our correspondent revealed that most residents who live close to gas dealers and retailers live in constant fear over what they describe as a ticking time bomb.
It is not unusual to see many of these retail shops sited in residential areas. Disturbingly, the gas retail shops in residential buildings often share space with restaurants where cooking is constantly done with naked fire.
The worries of those who live close to gas shops and depots may be genuine after all. Those who have suffered losses as a result of gas explosions live in constant fear in such neighbourhoods.
Four years ago, the pastor and members of a Pentecostal church, Akute, Ogun State had a taste of the havoc gas explosions could wreak. It was on a Monday morning on October 20, when a sudden bang occurred and all hell was let loose. Suddenly, part of one of the fastest-growing churches was destroyed by fire as a result of a gas explosion from an abandoned gas depot beside the church.
Nobody would have imagined such a tragedy on a Monday morning, October 20 to be precise, not even from a gas depot that had been abandoned for years.
A source from the church, who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak, told The Nation that the church was not even aware that the gas depot posed any danger as it had been abandoned for many years before the October 20 2019 explosion.
He said: “We were not aware that there was a remnant of gas in the tank. All we knew was that the place had just been leased.”
He said the destruction cost the church millions of naira. Both the exterior and interior parts of the church auditorium were damaged by the fire incident resulting from the explosion.
“Our losses ran into millions of naira. We lost many of our IT equipment including desktop and laptop computers as well as sound equipment.”
He said that for the prompt intervention of the Lagos Fire Service, the entire church would have been consumed.
“Ironically, the Lagos Fire Service was not supposed to come to Ogun State, but they were the only one available,“ the source added.
He said when the Ogun State Fire Service was called, they said they were experiencing a delay, probably because of distance or logistics. By the time they arrived, the Lagos Fire Service had come and the fire had been put out.
“If we were to wait for the Ogun Fire Service, the damage would have been enormous,” he said.
Also, about four months ago a household in Delta State lost four of its members to a gas explosion. The victims included a clergyman Adese Onos, his wife, and a domestic staff. The clergyman, until his demise, was the representative of the President General in the Forum of Presidents-General of Urhobo Kingdoms.
The report said the explosion occurred at Orogun, Ughelli North Local Government Area.
Also in May, an explosion caused by a gas cylinder claimed the lives of no fewer than four persons in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The report said the explosion occurred in a welder’s shop in the community.
An eyewitness said: “The explosion killed those people, tore their body parts, and scattered them all over the place.”
The explosion was said to have been caused by a gas cylinder in the shop of a local welder in the community.
In another incident in June 2022, 20 people were injured in Karshen-Kwaita, Kano with shops and residential buildings destroyed as a result of a gas explosion. A report said the accident was a result of a cylinder that exploded and instantly caught fire.
Ignorance, lackadaisical attitude fuel ugly trend
Speaking to The Nation, John Akpan, a gas retail attendant, who has been working in an Ogun gas shop for more than three years, said apart from being a gas attendant, he also does home service for his clients.
The building in which Akpan sells gas also hosts residential apartments. Just beside his shop is a food vendor who does her business near the gas retail shop. On an afternoon when our correspondent visited Akpan’s shop, the food vendor’s gas cooker was placed not far away from the gas shop. The gas-filled cylinder outside the shop belonged to a different customer and was waiting to be dispatched to its owner.
Many residents of the building, it was gathered, had complained at different times about the presence of a gas shop in a residential area, particularly as there were no safety measures in place. But they were helpless as the landlord insisted that anyone who was not comfortable with the gas shop was free to leave.
In a chat with our correspondent, one of the residents, Mary George said: “We have complained to the landlord about the danger of having a gas dispensing shop within the residential building, but the landlord would not listen. The most annoying thing is that God forbid there is any accident; the landlord too would be affected since he also lives in the building.
“At times when I’m coming home at night, I would perceive the smell of gas probably from a cylinder that is leaking. Any spark on such occasions could ignite fire,” the resident said.
While the residents of the building continued to live in fear, Akpan insisted that there is nothing to pray about as there had never been any accidents and there would never be any.
Although Akpan insisted that his boss got permission from the local government before he cited his gas retail shop in the residential building, The Nation investigation revealed that what his boss got was permission for a lock-up shop.
The Nation also found that except for a few retail shops and depots, most gas shops do not get permission from the supervising agency before starting their business.
Investigations by our correspondent also revealed, for instance, that while it is statutory for any retail gas shop to have a fire extinguisher and caution boards where dos and don’ts are expressly spelt out, many retail gas shops do not comply with these conditions.
In about 20 gas retail shops visited by the reporter, only one had a fire extinguisher while some owners claimed that nobody had told them that it was necessary to have fire extinguishers in their shops.
Findings revealed that it is not as if most of the retailers are not aware of this danger inherent in the absence of safety measures, but simply prefer not to adhere to the conditions spelt out by the Nigerian Fire Services.
Investigations by The Nation revealed that most places where these gas dispensing shops are sited are heavily populated commercial areas where a little spark could trigger a fire outbreak that would be difficult to combat.
Even on streets like the one where Akpan sited his shop, there are other shops like the food vendors that are close to Akpan’s gas shop, but none of the shops had fire extinguishers when our correspondent visited.
When business becomes rowdy
Mr. Joe Babalola, one of the operators of a retail gas shop in Lambe, a suburb of Ogun State, told our correspondent that while the Nigeria Fire Services and the retail gas association encourage members to ensure safety measures are put in place in residential areas, some members find a way to frustrate the efforts of these two bodies.
“Our association is aware of the danger a retail gas could pose, that is why the association made it a point of duty not to approve cooking gas retail shops sited close to one another,” Babalola said.
He said it is mandatory that cooking gas retail shops are located at least six poles apart.
He stated further that before starting his or her business, a retailer is expected to obtain a permit from the local government by paying N1,500; the retail cooking gas association collects N2,000 while N7,500 is paid to the Nigeria Fire Service department.
“It is part of the safety measures. In fact, as a landlord, you can’t just open a cooking gas retail shop if there is an existing one that is very close to your house,” he said.
However, according to Babalola, the idea of adhering to the condition of setting up cooking gas retail shops may not be tenable right now as the association is no longer functioning and nobody regulates the setting up of these retail shops. He said: “Since the COVID-19 palaver, the association has stopped functioning and the activities of the retailers have become rowdy. That is why the business of cooking gas retailing has become rowdy.”
According to Babalola, constant monitoring and unscheduled visits to cooking gas retailers had really helped in curtailing the rowdiness of the business. He disclosed that before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were “periodic checks by the fire services, who gave out safety instructions and made sure that the shops had fire extinguishers, and safety boards, which were made to be hung in the shops.
“Then, it was not uncommon to see the state fire service department paying unscheduled visits to streets and shops, asking for permits, caution boards where you are expected to write precautions, fire extinguishers, and other safety measures,” Babalola said.
He added that while this brought sanity to the business, others still circumvented it by not adhering to the conditions prescribed by the Nigeria Fire Services department.
While Babalola insisted that certain conditions are met before a retailer or a depot is given a permit to operate, some of the retailers see the setting up of LPG shops as a means to an end and are oblivious to the conditions they need to meet.
On her part, a gas retail shop operator, Mrs Cecilia Nwogwu, said she was not even aware that fire extinguisher is one of the preconditions for setting up a cooking gas retail outlet. “I’m not aware that I need to have a fire extinguisher or caution board to operate,” she said.
She also said she never had any training whether from the fire services or members of his union, or even aware of any body regulating the activities of gas retailers.
Beyond safety precautions
Babalola warned that while safety precautions in retail gas cooking shops are good, in reality, when an accident happens, all the safety precautions become useless because the retailer, out of panic, may not even remember to use the fire extinguisher.
He said: “There are different ways accidents happen. For instance, when the force pushes out the hose from the cylinder, if you are not conversant with how it should be handled, if you try to stop the gas from escaping, your hand could become paralysed for life.
“Also, leaking gas could attract fire even from outside the shop of a retailer and the retailer may not be aware.”
He warned that while the fire extinguisher is important, a retailer that panics in the event of a fire outbreak may not even remember the fire extinguisher.
“The first thing most dealers do is to run out of the shop and make sure he is safe; not to put out the fire. It is the people outside the shop that would help in putting out the fire. Though it may be good to have a fire extinguisher,” Babalola said.
Reacting to the residents complaining about having LGP shops in residential buildings, he said that irrespective of the way they feel, an accident comes when it wants to come. “There is no need for anybody to panic. Fire incidents rarely happen as a result of gas explosion,” he said.
Babalola, therefore warned that the business is not for those who are faint-hearted.
Encumbrances
Like other fire incidents, managing gas explosion accidents could be a bit difficult. Investigation revealed that most gas explosion accidents are exacerbated by the slow response of firefighters as a result of the distance between the satellite communities and state capitals.
The situation at the church that got burnt in an Ogun community would probably have been worse but for the proximity of the Lagos State Fire Services which helped in putting out the fire.
An official of the church admitted that but for the efforts of the fire service department, the multi-million naira church building would have burnt to ashes.
It was also gathered that the attitude of residents and resident associations are contributing to the nonchalant attitude of the operators of gas dealers in the residential areas. “The majority of our people do not want to offend or take any action that would make it look as if they are denying other people their means of livelihood.
“Imagine living in a house where the landlord is operating a gas retail shop. What do you do in that situation? That is the problem,” a resident told The Nation.
Expert allays fearsA professor of Health and Physics and Environment at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Osun State, Joshua Ojo, while admitting a number of unfortunate explosions at gas shops located in residential areas, said he was not aware that gas leakage poses any danger.
He said: “I know there are laws regulating petrol stations in residential areas. I don’t know if the same would apply to gas, especially for the small retail units.
“As for health hazards, I’m not sure of any, as there can’t be any significant buildup of gas without it being quickly detected and corrected.
“And unlike petrol, I’m not aware of other toxic components such as benzene.
“However, a speaker at our last conference at Ede (Osun State) seemed to be pointing out something I wasn’t familiar with. I will check, and If it is relevant, I will get back to you.”
NESREA, NNPC
At the time of writing this report, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group PRO Garba Deen was yet to reply to the WhatsApp message our correspondent sent to him.
The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) said, “NESREA’s mandate does not cover the oil and gas sector.”
Managing gas explosion
Advising on ways to prevent gas explosions, a senior officer at the Federal Fire Services, Dooshima Dennis, in a post said burying gas cylinders outside the house is an effective way to prevent gas explosions at home.
According to her, leaving cylinders within a residential apartment could lead to a fire outbreak, especially in hot weather.
Her tweets read: “Proper storage of cylinders in your home is paramount. A cylinder should be placed outside the house, (even the outside is not all that safe) in a well-ventilated location and not exposed directly to the sun or other heat sources.
“It should not be placed in the house or near an electrical socket or flammable substances. You can also bury your cylinder or do what is called damping.
“Having a gas cylinder at home brings along risks, considering how sunny and hot our country is, the fire risk is probably all at its highest.”
She further urged Nigerians to examine their gas cylinders before refilling. Such an act, the officer noted, will enable users to identify the expiration date of their cylinders.
“It means wrapping a big wet towel around it provided the bottom allows gas to escape in the air in case of a leak,” she explained.
