The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Gas explosion

  • Gas explosion rocks Rivers community

    Gas explosion rocks Rivers community

    A gas explosion from a pipeline owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Oando PLC has unsettled Omoku town in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government of Rivers State.

    It was gathered that the incident occurred at the weekend, close to Grace Orphanage Home, off Egbada Road, in Omoku town.

    It was alleged that the incident was caused by equipment failure, following reports that the pipelines were laid by NAOC in early 1960s.

    The Egbema Voice of Freedom (EVF) confirmed the incident, saying the ruptured gas pipeline had yet to be clamped, raising fears of possible inferno. 

    Leader of EVF, Pastor Nicholas, said the pipelines were obsolete and required immediate replacement. 

    He said: “The ruptured pipeline is yet to be clamped by Agip or Oando as we speak. Gas fumes are in the air.

    The pipeline explosion was caused by corrosion, no casualty has been recorded so far, but the pipeline is operated by Nigerian Agip Oil Company.

    “These pipelines are old; they were laid since the early 1960s when Agip came to Onelga.

    Read Also: Gas explosion rocks Rivers community

    “Now that Oando PLC has acquired Agip, Oando should start thinking of replacing these obsolete pipelines with new ones, otherwise more explosions like these will be recorded.”

    A source, Bright Abali, who witnessed the incident, called on NAOC and Oando PLC to fix the leaking pipeline before it caused inferno in the community.

    He said: “NAOC’s refusal to replace and maintain their obsolete facilities has denied the youth of ONELGA the required employment, which such project will create for their host communities. 

    “Gas eruption is a regular occurrence along Agip pipelines, particularly inside the forest areas due to obsolete pipelines. The company has refused to change their old facilities used over decades. 

    “NAOC exploration impact has caused unquantifiable damages to the environment, health and general life of the people of Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government of Rivers State and these unfriendly exploration practices must stop.”

  • Gas explosion rocks Rivers community

    Gas explosion rocks Rivers community

    A gas explosion from a pipeline owned  by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Oando Plc has unsettled  Omoku town in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    It was gathered that the incident  occured at the weekend close to the  Grace Orphanage Home, off Egbada Road in Omoku main town.

    It was alleged that the incident was caused by equipment failure following reports that the pipelines were laid by NAOC in early 1960s.

    The Egbema Voice of Freedom (EVF) confirmed the incident saying that the ruptured gas pipeline had yet to be clamped, raising fears of possible inferno. 

    Leader of EVF, Pastor Nicholas, said the pipelines were obsolete and required immediate replacement. 

    He said: “The ruptured pipeline is yet to be clamped by Agip or Oando as we speak. Gas fumes is in the air.

    The pipeline explosion was caused by corrosion, no casualty has been recorded so far but the pipeline is operated by Nigerian Agip Oil Company.

    Read Also: UPDATED: One dead, over 40 injured in South Africa gas explosion

    “These pipelines are old, they were laid since the early 1960s when Agip came to Onelga.

    “Now that Oando Plc has acquired Agip, Oando should start thinking of replacing these obsolete  pipelines with new ones, otherwise more explosions like these will be recorded.”

    A source, Amb. Bright Abali, who witnessed the incident called on NAOC and Oando Plc, to swiftly fix the leaking pipeline before it caused inferno in the community.

    He said: “NAOC refusal to replace and maintain their obsolete facilities has denied the youths of ONELGA the required employment, which such project would create for their host communities. 

    “Gas eruption is a regular occurrence along Agip  pipelines, particularly inside the forest areas due to obsolete pipelines. The company has refused to change their old facilities used over decades. 

    “NAOC exploration impact has caused unquantifiable damages to the environment, health and general life of the people of Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni LGA of Rivers State and these unfriendly exploration practices must stop.”

  • Four vehicles burnt in Lagos gas explosion

    Fire yesterday gutted a mechanic village, a mosque and a bungalow in Surulere, Lagos. It was caused by a gas explosion.

    The explosion, which occurred at Babs Animashaun Street, near Censors Market, Surulere, started around 12pm.

    Goods worth millions of naira were destroyed.

    Residents and passers-by scampered for safety.

    Some residents’ efforts to put out the fire were unsuccessful.

    They were relieved by the arrival of the Federal Fire Service officials from Sari-Iganmu and Ilupeju fire stations.

    The Nation learnt that firefighters responded to the emergency calls around 1pm.

    No fewer than four vehicles and three motorcycles were among the burnt items by the time the fire was put out.

    An eyewitness said the fire started from a local gas refuelling shop near Mechanic Village in the area.

    Another eyewitness, Ohis, wrote on his twitter handle: @Ogwogho_Ohis: “This is at Surulere around Babs Animashaun area. It was a gas explosion which started right inside a house. Cars have been burnt because there is a mechanic shop very close to building. Calls has been made to the fire service 112, this is an emergency situation.”

    Lagos State Fire Service Acting Director Rasaki Musibau advised the residents to be safety conscious and empowered themselves with basic firefighting devices.

    This, Musibau said, is to prevent loss of lives and property

    The Nation learnt that a two-storey building at 15, Adebiyi Street, Magodo Phase I was razed.

    Fire fighters from Alausa station responded around 12:29pm and were later supported by their colleagues from Ikeja fire station.

     

  • Gas explosion sacks Bayelsa communities

    •No life was lost, says pipeline operator

    Some communities in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have been sacked following a gas explosion in the area.

    It was gathered that the explosion occurred from  the Nembe Creek Trunk Line operated by the Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company.

    The incident reportedly caused panic among indigenes of seven communities of Nembe.

    Foreign news agencies reported a chief in Nembe kingdom in Bayelsa State, said up to 50 people were feared missing on account of the explosion.

    But Aiteo Exploration Ltd, operator of the 97 kilometre Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), said yesterday that there was no loss of life in the explosion on the crude export pipeline.

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) even said it had no record of pipeline explosion in the area as being reported in some quarters.

    Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja that he had “cross-checked with our downstream unit that manages our pipeline and they said that they didn’t have such records.”

    Hit by the gas explosion were Nembe creeks 1, 2 and 3, Jalungo, Fatuo and Kalablomi.

    It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 4am near Oil Well 7 on Friday.

    A source said the trunk line had been shut for emergency repairs following the detection of oil leakage.

    A native   who gave his name as Patrick said many residents fled the communities because of the pollution caused by the explosion.

    The Spokesman of the Nembe Council of Chiefs, Chief Nengi James–Eriworio, confirmed the development describing it as “massive destruction of the area with air and water heavily polluted.”

    He said: “People have deserted the area and the company has refused to respond despite series of emergency calls.

    “The fire is still raging. The incident is uncalled for and questionable. The people are afraid. Women and children are missing.”

    He called on the oil exploration company to be mindful of welfare of indigenes.

    He said following the incident, some persons were reported missing adding that after the tension was doused, some of the missing persons resurfaced.

    The chief further added that crude oil took over the waterways in the communities after the incident.

    He added: “This is large scale explosion. We are calling on the Federal Government agencies to investigate and respond to salvage the people. The incident has caused air and water pollution.  “We are concerned about the poor attitude of the company towards the host communities in Nembe.”

    Aiteo confirms no life lost in Nembe Creek oil pipeline explosion

    However, Aiteo Exploration Ltd, operator of the 97 kilometre Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), dismissed suggestions of loss of lives in the explosion.

    Aiteo officials said that the fire from the explosion, which burned till yesterday, had been put out.

    The NCTL situation, with a capacity of conveying 150,000 barrels of crude daily to the Bonny oil export terminal, will adversely affect crude export, having been put out of use.

    A Public Relations Manager of Aiteo, Mr Ndiana-Abasi Mathew, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a phone message.

    He said: “There is no official statement at the moment but I can gladly inform you that the fire has been contained and no lives were lost.”

    No record of pipeline explosion in Nembe – NNPC

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it had no record of pipeline explosion in Nembe.

    Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation said: “It is not our pipeline; it is Aiteo that was mentioned, which ordinarily they are supposed to be on joint venture with NNPC.

    “I have cross-checked with our downstream unit that manages our pipeline and they said that they didn’t have such records.”

     

  • Many feared dead as gas explodes in Nasarawa

    Gas explosion in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital, has left over 50 receiving treatment for various degrees of burns at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital.

    The explosion which happened on Monday morning at about 10am, was said to be as a result of a gas leakage from Monaco gas refill station located in the premises of Natson petrol station.

    An eyewitness, Mr Livingstone Chukwu, said the leak gas did not cause immediate damage to the gas and petrol stations until it made contact with the exhaust of commercial motorcyclists setting over 20 ablaze in an instant as cars on the road also caught fire burning the occupants.

    He said: “The owner of the gas station took off to safety before the raging fire from the road eventually engulfed the petrol and gas stations burning them to ashes with all the persons in the station at the time.

    The incident which coincided with the visit to the PDP secretariat by the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, left those who earlier converged at the party Secretariat running for their dear lives.

    When our reporter visited the the casualty unit of the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia, it was littered with burnt bodies of victims of the gas explosion as medical personnel of the hospital battle to save their lives.

    This was even as symphatisers thronged out in hundreds at the hospital premises to catch a glimpse of the horrific incident when victims of the inferno were conveyed in by the officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from the spot of the explosion.

    When our correspondent spoke to one of the sympathisers, Ibrahim Mushasha, at the casualty unit of DASH, he said,”so far over 50 burnt persons have been conveyed into the unit for urgent medication to save their lives”.

    His words: “Most of them were brought in unconscious and naked as their clothes burnt off their bodies”.

    “Some of the victims were caught up in the inferno as they were plying the Lafia – Abuja road, especially students of the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia who were going to the school for lectures, and persons travelling on that road as at the time of the gas explosion.

    A female medical personnel attending to the victims at the casualty unit of the hospital declined comment on the number of casualties so far conveyed into the casualty unit for treatment, when our correspondent sought to know.

    The wives of the governor, deputy governor, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were on ground providing succour.

    However, the state government had directed the evacuation of all affected persons to the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, for treatment as the facilities at DASH were not enough to accommodate victims.

    When our reporter visited the mortuary, the attendant, who refused to disclose his name said no corpse was deposited as at the time of filing this report.

    Nasarawa

  • Gas explosion kills four-month-old, four others in Delta 

    Five persons yesterday died in an explosion which rocked a gas shop near Okwe Market, Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State.

    The inferno also razed three shops.

    The victims include a four-month-old baby; a three-year-old child and their mother simply identified as Ada.

    Two teenagers who had gone to purchase biscuits from a provision shop near the gas shop were also killed.

    The Nation gathered that the incident, which occurred at about 1.30 p.m caused pandemonium in the community.

    A witness told The Nation that the fire started from the gas shop after a cylinder spilled its content into the air, causing two smaller cylinders to fly into neighbouring buildings.

    The source said further that a stove used by Ada to prepare meal for her children triggered the fire, when its smoke came in contact with the gas spewed into the air.

    Read also: Kaduna Electoral Commission gutted by fire days to LG polls

    The source said: ‘’The fire started at about 1:30pm in the afternoon at Okwe market. A large gas cylinder crashed on the floor with a loud noise causing two cylinders to fly into nearby shops and buildings.

    ‘’But the explosion occurred when Ada, who came with her four-month-old baby and her little son to stay with her friend, Jennifer, the owner of the shop, who had gone to Onitsha to purchase goods for her provision shop was cooking on a store”.

    The eyewitness said the fire spread to neighbouring shops causing widespread panic.

    He added that Ada died from burns after she tried to rescue her children, who were sleeping in a corner of the shop.

    “The fire had spread rapidly by the time the mother of two realized that her children were inside. She tried fruitlessly to rescue her children. Two other children who came to the shop to make a purchase were also burnt in the inferno”.

     

  • Gas pipeline explosion sends panic round Delta community

    A midnight gas explosion yesterday sent panic round Ejere community in one of the creeks around Warri South Council Area of Delta State.

    Although there was no casualty, The Nation gathered that residents of the Itsekiri community, who were terrified by the massive blast, were already running out of their homes to make for the open bushes to seek refuge.

    A reliable security source told The Nation that the incident, which occurred at about 4:30am, was an explosion from a gas pipeline operated by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and was believed to have been as a result of a system malfunction.

    A community source, who spoke under conditions of anonymity, told The Nation that the explosion shook the houses in the community to their foundations, adding that most people panicked because the explosion was initially taken for a militant attack.

    “People started jumping out of their beds to find escape routes because it was so massive, we even thought it was a militant attack, until army people started coming in at about 6:00am and assured us that there was no cause for alarm”, the source said.

    Efforts to get a feedback from the NGC on the development were unsuccessful as calls and SMS sent across to the company’s spokesman in Warri, Violin Antaih, went unanswered and not replied.

    The explosion, the Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (OPDS), Rear Admiral Suleiman Apochi, said he was yet to get a full briefing on the development as at the time he was reached.

  • Three injured in gas explosion

    Three injured in gas explosion

    Three persons were injured yesterday in a gas explosion at 73 Orile Road, Tabon Tabon, Agege, Lagos.

    No less than N150,000, a bag of rice, phones, gas, cylinders, mattress, fan, cloths and other household goods were lost to the inferno, which began around 9:30am and lasted till noon.

    The injured – two boys, who came to fill their cylinders in a gas shop and another boy, Chijoke – who works in the gas shop, have been taken to the hospital.

    When The Nation visited the house, sympathisers were around to condole with the victims. Many passers-by stopped at the house to find out the cause of the fire, while motorists peeped.

    A food vendor, Mrs Kafayat Soliu, whose one room apartment got burnt, said she could not rescue anything from her room.

    Mrs Soliu, who was at home when the incident happened, said: “I just finished fetching water and went into my room to change my cloth. I was in the kitchen dishing food when I suddenly heard the sound of a gas cylinder fell and it exploded immediately. I screened ‘my son’, he was in front of my room with another person who carried him and we all ran out of the house.

    “Many people were already around the house, the fire had extended to my room, all I have, including my phones, clothes, television, the N100,000 that my husband kept in the wardrobe and the N50,000 I kept in my children’s wardrobe,  a bag of rice, which I bought three days ago and everything inside the room, got burnt. I could not take a single pin out of the room. All we have left is this clothe I am wearing.

    “The food, which I sell in front of the house, is also affected. The gas shop was razed.  All the cylinders and everything in the shop got burnt. Both of us could not pick anything. I don’t know where my family and I would sleep tonight; we have no family around to spend the night with. I’m fed up; even my husband who just left here does not know what to do.”

    Mrs Soliu appealed to the government for assistance.

    “We have nowhere to go to or sleep,” she said.

    Another victim, whose roof of her one room apartment also caught fire, Mrs Elizabeth Oke, said she learnt that the boys, who came to fill their gas, must have been using the gas before coming to fill it.

    Mrs Oke said: “Their cylinder was hot and it exploded while Chijoke was filling it. The boys should have allowed the cylinders to get cold before coming to fill it.

    The gas being filled while it was hot exploded and caught fire. Although we thank God that no life was lost. All our children had gone to school when the incident happened.”

    She said the three boys were injured are in the hospital.

    She said: “We don’t know if they will survive because I learnt that one of them was seriously burnt. The two boys that came to fill their gas are within age 12, we do not know them because they just came to fill their gas. But Chijoke should be in his late 20’s.

    “A neighbour called to inform me. I was at Oshodi, on my way to buy some stuff at Eko market when I got the call and rushed home.

    “It was the boys in the area that quenched the fire. We need government intervention because we have nowhere to sleep tonight; as you can see, we are all outside and we have no one to help us.  The fire fighters came here without water.

    “They just came here, expecting us to give them money for them to look for water to quench the fire. It was the house next to us that helped us out because they sell water there. The fire fighters came for nothing because they did nothing.  It was police officers that later chased them away since they were not able to do anything. We are not sure of which fire fighters came. Gas shouldn’t be sold at residential buildings. They should be at the filling station and anyone whose wants to fill gas should go and do so at the filling station. They should  stop the landlord from renting the house as  a gas shop because it is dangerous,” she said.

     

  • One injured in gas explosion

    One person was injured when an explosion occurred at a cooking gas retail outlet at Ileleji Street, off Fani-Kayode Road, Warri, Delta State.
    The incident, which occurred about 7p.m. at RMC Cooking Gas Plant, The Nation learnt, followed a minor slip of discharge hose while gas was being discharged from a tanker.
    The 27-year-old victim, whose name was given as Ohis Eruaga, said he was discharging gas from a tanker into the reservoir of the plant when the hose disconnected, adding that the next thing he heard was an explosion.
    “I cannot tell you what caused the explosion. All I know is that the hose pulled off. I am seriously injured,” he said.
    The Nation gathered that the state Fire Service officials, who got to the scene about 7:30p.m., prevented disaster.
    An employee of the gas plant denied that there was an explosion.

  • One killed in Damaturu gas explosion

    A welder was Wednesday morning  killed and a soldier critically wounded in an accidental explosion that occurred at a  welder’s shop close to the central roundabout along Potiskum road in Damaturu, Yobe State capital.
    One petrol hawker close to the scene of the explosion was also wounded in the process according to an eyewitness, Ibrahim Imman.
    Ibrahim disclosed that the welder’s body was shattered from the heated pipe which also hit the soldier who was monitoring the work.
    Another eyewitness Adamu Haruna who hawks close to the scene of the incident said the soldier may not make it to the hospital.
    “I saw the soldier on the ground. All his intestine were outside his stomach, but he was very brave, still holding unto life. Only Allah will save him at the hospital”, Haruna said as he shook his head and left.
    Spokesman of 127 Taskforce Brigade Lt. George Okupe confirmed the incident to The Nation on phone in Damaturu.
    According to him, “troops from Goniri in Yobe State brought a pipe to be welded to increase the height of the antenna on one of their hilux car to the welder and the unfortunate incident occurred in the process of the job.”
    He said that the accident occurred at about 10.30 am at the shop of the welder, adding that, “one of our soldiers was wounded in the accidental explosion with one civilian.Both have been taken to the Gen. Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital Damaturu”.
    Speaking on the cause of the explosion, Lt. Okupe dismissed claims of any link of the explosion to Boko Haram but said  “we  are waiting for the Police Explosive Ordinance Device(EOD) investigation to know the true cause of the explosion”.
    He called on the people of Yobe State, especially Damaturu residents not to panic as the army are equip enough to provide adequate protection for everyone.