Two Dead, Others Injured As Pipeline Explosion Rock Lagos Suburb
There was a pipeline explosion earlier today at Ijegun, a suburb north of Lagos, Nigeria.
The fire incident was caused by vandals at a pipeline of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu ,the Director General/CEO of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), gave the update in a statement on Thursday.
He said two persons died while 12 with varying degrees of burns have been taken to the hospital.
While eight of the persons with burns were taken to the Burns Unit of Gbagada General Hospital, the remaining four are being attended to at Teaching Hospital and the corpses of those who died had been deposited at the morgue in Yaba.
A similar event occurred at that same spot on 15 May 2008, some eleven years ago. The explosion took place after a bulldozer struck an oil pipeline. The Lagos police stated then that the explosion appeared to be an accident, and not the work of thieves, near Lagos.
Construction workers accidentally broke an underground pipeline from which fuel started to spill out; moments later an explosion occurred, where more than 15 homes and 20 vehicles were burned in the fire. Nigerian Emergency Management Agency put the death toll at 39 including school children.
