Lagos explosion: Residents relocate to different destinations

Some Abule Ado residents in Lagos State, who were affected by Sunday gas fire outbreak, have started packing their belongings to different destinations.
Some of the victims told the News Agency of Nigeria that the move was to avoid further destructions as the fire fighters were still battling to put off the blaze.
Bisi Lateef, one of the victims, who was with her children, said many of her household property were destroyed by the fire.
She narrated how her house was engulfed by fire when she and her children went out to visit a family friend.
Lateef applauded her neighbours for calling her on phone to alert her of the incident, saying: “Little of my property was saved by people around when the incident began.
“I don’t know where to go with these things in my car boot; those are the remains of my households.
“All that I laboured for is gone.
“My husband’s car that was parked in front of the house was already burnt before my arrival and I don’t even know what to tell him when he comes back from tour.”
Lateef said she would drive her children to a safer place in a public school at the Ojo Barracks area for safety until she found a better place to stay.
Basil Akobundu, one of the affected residents, while moving his household items, said he just wanted to leave the place for safety.
Akobundu said: “Although, I don’t have a particular place where I want to relocate to, but the situation here is devastating.
“As you can see, the fire has destroyed many buildings close to my own and it’s raging towards my house, but I will not wait for it to happen.
“If it means staying on the road away from the scene with my family alive, is better than being counted a casualty.
“The way I see this fire burning, it will not be up to an hour before it gets to my house.”
Meanwhile, the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Chairman, Valentine Buraimoh, had visited the place to ascertain the level of damage.
Buraimoh also promised to assist the victims.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said the explosion was triggered after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant near the corporation’s pipeline in Abule Ado area of Lagos State.
The impact of the explosion led to the collapse of nearby houses, damaged NNPC’s pipeline and caused the corporation to halt pumping operations on the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline, the state-owned oil company, it said in a statement.
According to Ibrahim Farinloye, the Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, several people were injured and taken to hospital already.
Seventeen persons were confirmed dead by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency.