The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed that five persons were killed following a gas tanker explosion in Baruwa area of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Acting Zonal Coordinator, South-West Zonal Office, NEMA, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that three persons have been rescued.
Farinloye said Thursday’s incident occurred at 5.40 a.m. at Candos Road, Baruwa Inside, Lagos when a Liquefied Petroleum Gas tanker was in the process of discharging at the Best Roof Gas Plant Station.
He said: “Unfortunately, the gas station had its generator on and it triggered an explosion. The explosion threw the discharging tanker across the road.
“There are casualties. Five bodies have been recovered but search and recovery will be carried out after the emergency phase.
“Many buildings have been destroyed because the station is located within a densely populated community.”
Farinloye said the inferno has been put off by officers of the Lagos State Fire Service while impact assessment by emergency response agencies was ongoing.
Also, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Mrs Oluwayemisi Sule, said that two bungalows, four-storey buildings, consisting of one school, one hotel, one creative centre and one residential building, 24 Shops as well as one gas station were destroyed by the explosion.
“Also affected included a gas tanker truck, one Pick-up van, and one Tricycle,” Sule added.
A similar incident occurred at Iju, in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of the state on Sept. 24 which led to 44 persons sustaining various degrees of injuries while 26 vehicles and 36 houses were damaged.
Meanwhile, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has commiserated with the government and people of Lagos State, and particularly the residents of Baruwa area, on the gas plant fire incident that ravaged the community in the early hours of Thursday.
A press release by the Corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, stated that NNPC feels particularly sad at the loss of lives and property, caused by the incident barely a few weeks after a similar incident at Iju Ishaga area of the state.
It assured that though NNPC’s pipelines were not anywhere close to the location of the incident, the Corporation swiftly mobilized its Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Team, in collaboration with other relevant agencies of Lagos State Government and ensured that the situation was promptly brought under control.
It called on operators of gas plants and other petroleum products facilities in the Country to ensure strict adherence to safety rules and regulations to avoid incidents of this nature and the unnecessary loss of lives and property.
