Nnewi, the industrial and commercial capital of Anambra State, was on Christmas eve, thrown into confusion and mourning when an LPG gas plant operated by Inter Corp Oil Ltd, a subsidiary of Chicason Group, exploded.
The explosion, which occurred around 11 am, reportedly resulted from a leak when a consignment of gas was being uploaded to the company’s dump. Some of the people at the plant were said to have been burnt. Others who were in the neighbourhood and passersby were caught in the inferno.
The victims were rushed to Nnamdi Azikwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi. The fire did not allow rescue workers access into the factory where the majority of the victims were trapped. Sadly, all efforts to get the attention of the Anambra State Fire Service failed, according to an eye witness who spoke with The Nation.
An eye witness, who escaped death by the whiskers, said a fire officer, Mrs Mary Ofia, excused fire service personnel when she claimed that the fire truck was vandalised by a mob when they went for an operation at Nkpor, a community in Anambra. He said apart from the fact that the Fire Service’s equipment were non-functional, it took them time to get to the factory. He said by the time they retreated and came back, the inferno had done incalculable damage.
Apart from lives lost to the inferno and buildings razed, over 50 vehicles around the gas plant were equally affected. Some dead victims were actually recovered in their homes.
However, while the company and family members of the victims are still struggling to come to terms with the reality of what hit them, attempts by people to shift the blame for what happened to the wrong place may have added to their sorrows.
Rather than commiserating with the people and coming up with new strategies to avert such occurrences, The Nation learnt, government agencies seem to be adding salt to the injury of the people who lost relations, friends and business by accusing the company of unsubstantiated claim of operating substandard facilities.
A report exclusively obtained by The Nation confirmed that some industry operators who toured what was left of the factory after the fire confirmed that the business was run on what could have met industrial standards anywhere in the world. Relevant industry regulatory bodies, according to the report, also approved the facility.
One of the members of the tour team who declined to be because he was not authorised to speak, said the fire was one of many industrial accidents that confront businesses daily, and necessitates government standing up for the citizenry, both individual and corporate.
He said rather than shift blame, the question should be: How did government agencies respond to this particular incident? Could some of the lost lives have been saved had the government responded better? What is the hope of better response from the Fire Service and emergency management arms of government for the various businesses that operate in the same vicinity in the face of similar happenstance?
He said the explosion was a sad reminder of the need for the government to walk its talk in the provision of necessary infrastructure and equipping its relevant emergency response agencies, particularly the Fire Service. He said it was curious that Nnewi despite being home to many manufacturing outfits cannot boast of an efficient and effective fire service.
The first locally made automobile in Nigeria was produced by INNOSON with its factory in Nnewi employing thousands of people. The industrial city has over 30 major factories, 50 cottage industries, 10 major hotels with over 10, 000 direct work force. Its contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has yet to attract any special treatment from either the Federal or State Government.
The thriving industrial town boasts of companies with billions of naira as turn over yearly. Yet, the lack of an efficient fire service has continued to pose serious risk to billions of naira worth of investments made by private investors.
However, Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau, has assured that more proactive measures will be taken to prevent future re-occurence.
The Minister said this when he visited the state on Wednesday to sympathise with the government and people of Anambra State. He was accompanied by the Comptroller-General of Fire Service and his counterpart at Civil Defence.
