Explosions from gas and fuel stations have become recurring decimals that lead to avoidable loss of lives across the country. In Lagos, seven deaths occurred in two separate incidents on January 16. A leak at a gas plant on CMD Road, near Magodo Estate, claimed two lives. Five others were killed in the Badagry area. Besides the dead, eight persons suffered burns of varying degrees. Also destroyed at the CMD Road inferno were three gas reservoir tanks, a truck laden with gas, an administrative block and other equipment.
In Imo State, four people were burnt to death at Orji, a suburb of Owerri on November 27 last year from a gas explosion at a petrol station; just as five houses were razed in the state capital on January 18, at different locations. One of the houses gutted allegedly belongs to the Deputy Governor of Imo State, Eze Madumere. Anambra State experienced a similar tragedy in August 2017, when four persons were burnt to death in Obosi, Idemili Local Government Area.
Osogbo in Osun State, Sagamu and Abeokuta in Ogun State, have not been spared from such conflagration and its attendant fatalities. When it is not a gas explosion, it is an inferno from a fuel tanker while discharging its contents at a petrol station or one involved in an accident like the December 12, 2017 explosion on the FESTAC Link Bridge in Amuwo Odofin in Lagos that burnt 20 vehicles. In Rivers and Cross River states, similar morbid tales are aplenty. The frequency is simply alarming.
But the failure of regulations, compromises by public officials, the unplanned nature of our urban areas and Nigerians’ penchant for bending rules are at the heart of these macabre incidents. The CMD Road gas explosion, for instance, was said to have been ignited by the exhaust pipe of a vehicle that sped past the station when technicians were at work to stop a leakage. Emergency response officials immediately sealed up the place.
In cities, some gas plants are located in petrol stations, while many others stand alone and are recklessly sited in densely-populated areas. In a city like Lagos, petrol stations are indiscriminately located in contravention of the guidelines for operating the business.
The Department of Petroleum Resources has guidelines derived from the Petroleum Regulation Act for the construction and operation of both gas and petrol stations. For gas, the operator must obtain a certificate from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria that the tank meets specification and is safe. Gas detector; mechanical leak tester; warning notices, personnel protective wears for plant operators and final fire safety certification from federal or state fire departments, among others, are needed.
It is also imperative that the “total number of petrol stations within two kilometres stretch of the site on both sides of the road will not be more than four.” Furthermore, before approval is given for construction to begin, 10 documents would be required. Among them are Environmental Impact Assessment report for underground storage tank capacities and a letter from the Land and Survey department.
However, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Lagos inner roads and in other cities, seven or more petrol stations on both sides of the road exist within a two-kilometre stretch. In some cases, stations face each other, thus creating gridlock during periods of products scarcity.
These abuses raise questions about law enforcement. It is scary to see a vehicle ignition on while petrol is being purchased and telephone calls made or received near active fuel pumps. These, according to experts, could trigger explosions.
Given the obvious lapses in situating these inflammable business outlets in a congested urban area like Lagos with about 22 million people, the state’s environmental and town planning authorities should see it as a challenge to go round the town, identify stations that operate outside of the established guidelines and draw the attention of the DPR for necessary action. The agency itself is indolent in the discharge of its regulatory functions.
It is foolhardy to cry when the head is already off. This seems to be the attitude of officials with their habit of waiting for such tragedies to occur before they identify safety drifts that ought to have been remedied. There are privately-owned schools and other business organisations that cohabit with these combustible business outlets, just as in some areas, they are hemmed by residential houses as a result of encroachment.
Thus, this presents a challenge to urban planning ministries across the states: redeem whatever is redeemable from our amorphous cities in order to stem danger. In areas where master plans exist, they should be enforced. The danger of proximity of crowded businesses to petrol and gas stations was evident in the gas explosion at Okpokiri petrol station at Orji near Owerri, last year. Two banks located opposite and beside it hurriedly closed business for the day, as their buildings were damaged and some of their customers injured and rushed to hospital.
Accidents like these recommend well-equipped fire-fighting agencies to federal and state authorities. Sadly, fire personnel performance during outbreaks leaves much to be desired: they either arrive late or run short of water to quench the blaze. It is incredible that only 15 out of 36 states have functional fire services, according to FSS Comptroller-General, Joseph Anebi.
With increasing urban population and a society not accustomed to law and order, the DPR should no longer trifle with the enforcement of rules on the operation of gas and petrol stations. The Grenfell Tower fire outbreak in England last year that claimed 70 lives and the California wild fire in the United States drove home the point that similar tragedies here so far, whether from gas explosion or other sources, may only be a tip of the iceberg. Sustained public enlightenment is critical to reducing the risk of this hazard from happening.
