Penultimate Friday, tragedy struck in the bustling Agbor town when a tanker loaded with cooking gas exploded while discharging the content at a gas plant. The unfortunate incident led to the death of four people, while about a dozen suffered varying degrees of severe burns. Properties worth several millions of naira located around the plant were also not spared in the conflagration that ensued.
The governor of Delta state, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who visited the scene the next day, confirmed the number of fatalities and those who suffered severe burns. They were rushed to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) for special treatment.
Okowa then gave the assurance that he would liaise with the state House of Assembly to come up with a law regulating the siting of such plants. He said that it would have been more disastrous if many houses were close to the scene of the disaster.
The Agbor disaster was one tragedy too many. Gas explosions have become regular occurrences in different parts of the country in recent years. For instance, on January 15, 2018, a gas explosion occurred at the Second Coming Filling Station in Magodo, Lagos. The explosion was believed to have been caused by a leakage from a gas plant. About 10 lives were lost, while all the vehicles in and around the gas station as well as one 33,000-litre gas truck parked in the premises were caught in the raging inferno.
On September 11, 2018, a gas explosion occurred at the Monaco Filling Station, Lafia, that left over 20 lives consumed by fire, while more than 50 people suffered varying degrees of severe burns. The tragedy occurred when a product reservoir, believed to emit leakage, responded to a spark resulting from a head-on collision between a commercial motorcyclist and a tricyclist along the street close to the filling station. Consequently, the station caught fire that led to the explosion that also consumed no fewer than 17 vehicles, two fuel tankers, several tricycles and motorcycles. Many adjoining houses were also razed down and properties worth millions of naira reduced to ashes.
It was a gory sight as several bodies, most of them burnt beyond recognition, littered the scene of the explosion. Victims included kids, some students on their way to the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, and travellers along the Lafia-Abuja road.
On January 4, last year, a gas explosion occurred in Kaduna, killing the Chairman of Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, Prof. Simon Mallam, his son and four others at Sabon Tasha area of the metropolis.
Mallam, a professor of Physics, had just returned from the United States of America on an official tour, and was at Sabon Tasha to have a haircut close to the gas shop when the tragedy struck.
An eyewitness, who is a manager of a filling station opposite the gas shop, Mr. Jerry Bishop, narrated that dismembered bodies of the gas vendor and one customer were scattered at the scene. It was widely believed that the explosion occurred due to a phone call received by the customer, who was buying gas.
The Lafia tragedy has once again brought to the fore the need to ensure safety at our fuel stations as well as in handling highly inflammable products even on the highways. However, incidents of gas explosion are not peculiar to filling stations alone like the one that occurred in Lafia. There are several cooking gas selling points littering everywhere in the country. It is common to see sales outlets accommodated in crowded locations like markets, plazas and residential areas, just as fuel stations are sited close to commercial and private homes along the streets.
The relevant regulatory agencies, including the Fire Service, have a responsibility to see to it that operators of the businesses meet the necessary conditions for the setting up of filling stations and adhere strictly to safety standards. The same goes for marketers of cooking gas and similar inflammatory products. They must be made to train their workers on how to respond to emergency situations whenever they occur, and the workers must be equipped with fire-fighting tools.Filling station owners and gas sellers must also ensure that their patrons adhere strictly to the rules that forbid making or answering calls in and around their stations, especially the pump points where products are being dispensed. Motorists should realise that driving into a filling station/gas point is like a death sentence if they contravene the safety rules. Those who contravene the rules should be treated as merchants of death and dealt with promptly.