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 yesterday morning around 10am was said to have resulted from a leakage from a refill station located in the premises of Natson petrol station.
An eyewitness, Livingstone Chukwu, said the leaked 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 of them ablaze as cars on the road also caught fire and burnt the occupants, including toddlers.
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 dear lives.
When our reporter visited the casualty unit of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, it was littered with burnt bodies of victims of the gas explosion as medical personnel of the hospital battled 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 were 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.” 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 the 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.
Effort to speak with the state police Public Relations Officer Mr.
Ismaila Umaru, for official response on the incident proved abortive.
Meanwhile the Speaker Nasarawa state house of Assembly Hon.
Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi said the house would soon come up with a law that would stop gas activities within urban cities across the state.
“As true representatives of the people, we are going to enact law that will stop gas activities in the heart of the town, that is what we must do as a legislature because we cannot fold our hands to allow this type of thing to continue.”