Explosions rocked Apapa – the Lagos port town– yesterday, as fire hit a barge at the Tin Can Island.
The explosions occurred as the MRS barge (oil tank) was discharging fuel into a tank on a jetty at the port.
The entire area was shaken by the explosions, which were immediately followed by a huge fire that sent plumes of smoke into the air.
People ran helter-skelter in panic. They did not know immediately what was happening.
The fire, which started at about 11:15am, was put out a few hours later but not after it had disrupted activities at the ever-busy port and the surrounding areas.
There were speculations that no fewer than four people might have died, but the agencies – the Red Cross, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) – said nobody died. Only four people were injured.
“There was a ship that was trying to discharge into an oil tank owned by [Nigerian firm] MRS and there was a fire, but I don’t yet have any details as to what led to the fire,” said Ibrahim Farinloye of NEMA.
An MRS security official, who asked not to be named, told AFP “it was a fuel explosion” from the barge.
“We were lucky that rescue efforts came in time. The fire could have caused severe damage, but the fire has now stopped and there are no fatalities,” he said.
Farinloye and the Red Cross said four people were injured.
“Nobody died. We only recorded four injured people who had been taken to hospital for treatment,” said Iteogu Adaku from the Red Cross. “We have also succeeded in extinguishing the inferno before it could spread.”
“I felt the explosion from where we were,” said Charles Osagie, who works at an import and export office in the district.
Around a dozen firefighters battled to douse the flames. Journalists were prevented from taking pictures or making telephone calls, including that of The Nation’s Maritime Reporter Oluwakemi Dauda, were seized. He was briefly detained.
The phones of some rescue workers who were taking photos were also seized.
There have been some fire around the country since December.
The Abeokuta Hilltop home of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), markets in Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and other major cities have recently been gutted by fire.
The director of Shipping and Trade of the tank firm, Mr Marcos Storari, said “there was no casualty recorded by our company”.
He said NPA officials and other security agencies’ officials working at the port, visited the scene. But he prevented reporters from entering the premises.
Investigation, he said, was on to determine the cause of the fire.
Security sources, who witnessed the blast, said many people were injured and that the fire caused serious damage to the company because it took almost two hours for fire fighters to arrive at the scene.
“The fire started slowly from a tanker barge (ship) that was on its way to the Snake Island in Apapa and followed by multiple explosions which resulted into chaos and people started running for their lives.
“To tell you the gravity of the explosion, many people abandoned their vehicles on the port access road and ran for their lives after the second explosion,” the security officer said.
Spokesman of the Nigeria Customs Service, Tin-Can Island command, Mr Chris Osunkwo, said they were forced to stop operation temporarily, following the explosion that destroyed part of their offices.
“I have never seen this kind of fire in my life. The ship was discharging fuel at MRS jetty and the thing exploded which resulted into fire and it affected our building as it shattered glasses of our windows.
“People are moving away from major buildings, including the NPA building. Temporarily, we have shut down our operations so that we would not record any casualty,” he said.
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANALCA), Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, said the fire is a warning to the Federal Government to relocate all tank firms because of the danger they pose to the port community and Lagos State.
Other reporters intervened before he was released and his camera returned after some vital photographs have been deleted from his camera by the lawless police officers.
A House of Representatives’ member, Rasaq Bello-Osagie, has said the fire incident is an evidence of poor planning.
The lawmaker, who witnessed the fire, decried the lack of water hydrants at government facilities.
He said: “The fire at Tin Can Island caused by a docked vessel waiting to offload its cargo is another profound evidence of a systemic failure.
“For how long shall we continue to lament the absence of an efficient response mechanism to address these challenges of inferno engulfing our public utilities, commercial and private property in our country?
“The relevant agencies must respond as appropriate to avert future occurrences.”
