Nigerian fuel blast kills 269

[Malaikah]

Nigerian fuel blast kills 269

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=174049

Hundreds of people were burned alive when fuel spilling from a vandalised pipeline exploded in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, emergency workers said.

Crowds of local residents went to scoop up the petrol in plastic containers after an armed gang punctured the underground pipeline overnight to siphon fuel into road tankers.

"The number of dead is confirmed at 269. We have retrieved all the bodies," said Abiodun Orebiyi, secretary-general of the Nigerian Red Cross. Another 160 people were taken to two hospitals in Lagos suffering from burns, another Red Cross official said.

Shortly after the blast, hundreds of bodies, most burned beyond recognition, were scattered on the ground next to a ramshackle car workshop and a saw mill in the densely populated Abule Egba district.

Some corpses lay rigid on the earth - arms and legs thrust awkwardly in the air - their clothes and skin burned off by the blast. Others were reduced to ash.

It took firefighters equipped with leaking water hoses about six hours to extinguish the flames as hundreds of people came to watch.

In the absence of an ambulance service, one group of volunteers loaded charred corpses into an estate car operated by the Lagos road safety authority.

Some women sat crying on a bench.

"One friend knocked on our door and told my husband they were taking fuel. My husband ran out with two buckets and now he has gone. This is a curse from God," said a woman who gave her name as Ole.

Youths with jerry cans were offering stolen fuel on a nearby roadside at double the official price.

Long queues have formed at fuel stations across Nigeria over the past few weeks because of shortages in supply from the national oil company.

"Because of the scarcity, people want to make a quick profit or just fill their tank," Orebiyi said.

Despite huge exports of crude oil, Nigeria suffers regular shortages of petrol and diesel because it relies on imports of refined fuel from the West.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised not to increase local fuel prices in 2006, after a series of hikes triggered protests in 2005, but there is widespread speculation that prices will rise after the new year.

Industry experts estimate that about five per cent of Nigerian crude oil is stolen for export by criminal syndicates with contacts in the military and government.

But smaller-scale theft of gasoline and diesel is also common, and much more deadly because of the highly flammable nature of these fuels.

A similar explosion at a vandalised pipeline in another part of Lagos in May killed about 200 people.

[Erundur]

My prayers go out to the families, such a tragedy imsad :'( :-\

[Malaikah]

:sl:

^indeed. What struck me though, is that this happened to people who were stealing. :-\

Edit- I'm not implying that they were all thieves, don't get me wrong. God knows best which of them were in wrong and which weren't.

[SilentObserver]

:sl:

^indeed. What struck me though, is that this happened to people who were stealing. :-\

The fuel was spilled on the ground, really. I don't know if that is stealing. Certainly for people that are dirt poor, they will take whatever break they can get. I don't fault them for that.

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[Woodrow]

Sadly it appears the real culprits got away.

Crowds of local residents went to scoop up the petrol in plastic containers after an armed gang punctured the underground pipeline overnight to siphon fuel into road tankers.

The real crooks had no concern about the safety of others. They stole by the truck load and even worse than stealing they showed no concern about the safety of others.

It seems that the victims in the tragedy were impoverished people trying to salvage spilled fuel.

May the innocents be blessed with Jannah and may the guilty ones recieve what they deserve.

[Malaikah]

The fuel was spilled on the ground, really. I don't know if that is stealing.

The pipe was punctured by vandals... how is that not stealing?

May the innocents be blessed with Jannah and may the guilty ones recieve what they deserve.

Ameen! What worried me is that this was not the first time a pipe blew up in the same city! How long before they learn their lesson?

[Erundur]

:sl:

^indeed. What struck me though, is that this happened to people who were stealing. :-\

People would do some desperate things in order to live, besides those people had families whatever intentions those people had its between them and God, but as for the kids whose family members are lost, its not easy, I'm sure.

Billy: "Mom, where's dad?"
Mom: "Billy, I don't know how to say this but...your father was burned alive after trying to steal oil"
Billy: ....

[Abdul Fattah]

They said the death toll was 500 here on the news???

[Malaikah]

:sl:

^God forbid:X, Maybe it increased?! Let's hope they made a mistake.

Subhanallah, so tragic. :'(

[rubiesand]

Nigeria has a huge oil industry, yet the people remain in desperate poverty. The ones who punctured the pipe may be thieves, but there are worse thieves than them in the background.

“How can this be, that people are so poor in Nigeria that they will risk their lives for a little thing?” asked Bode Kuforiji, a university lecturer. “But boats leave for America every day filled with oil.”

[Woodrow]

Nigeria has a huge oil industry, yet the people remain in desperate poverty. The ones who punctured the pipe may be thieves, but there are worse thieves than them in the background.

“How can this be, that people are so poor in Nigeria that they will risk their lives for a little thing?” asked Bode Kuforiji, a university lecturer. “But boats leave for America every day filled with oil.”

That is true, but sadly like many petroleum producing nations. They never developed refining of oil and although they have the crude oil, it is useless and they have to import gasoline from the west.

Oil as it comes from the ground is of no use. It only becomes gasoline and usable petroleum products after being refined.



The oil industry is very complex. Land in mideastern nations is leased to western companies, such as Halliburton, Procon, Bechtal etc. to drill for oil. The oil is then shipped across the world on tankers usualy of Taiwanese ownership and registered as Liberian. The petroleum is then manufactured into gasoline, diesal fuel etc, by companies such as Exxon and sold world wide, including Mid East nations as Gasoline and other products.

The oil industry is Multi-National and no single country or business has over all control of the entire process.

Without the Eastern oil deposits, no oil, without the Taiwanese shipping companies no tankers, Without the Liberian regulation of the tankers no crews, without the western manufacturing companies no gasoline.

The sad part is the countries with the oil usually have to pay the most for gasoline. The oil production from the ground is the cheapest part of the process. Leaving many people in poverty except for the people who lease the land out for oil drilling.

The resulting Irony is the countries with the most oil, often have the poorest general population. Only in some of the Islamic Countries does the profit from oil leases get shared with the people.

[SilentObserver]

The pipe was punctured by vandals... how is that not stealing?

I know it is just details, but vandals broke the pipe spilling the fuel. In an impoverished region, when the fuel is spilling onto the ground, the people will come running to collect what is spilling. They cannot be blamed for that. The vandals are the thieves, not the residents.