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Africa Subsaharan

Lagos pipeline blast kills dozens

2007-12-26

At least 34 people have been burned to death after a petrol pipeline exploded in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, officials say.

Local people had been trying to collect fuel from the pipeline, which had been deliberately breached, when something caused the petrol to ignite.

"Hey guys, I'm going to use this blowtorch to put another hole in the pipeline. You know, so's we can collect more fuel."

Most of the victims were women and children, who had arrived with fuel containers, witnesses said.

The men being too busy with bidness to deign to carry the fuel jugs ...

Such disasters are not unusual in oil-rich Nigeria. A year ago, at least 260 people died in one pipeline explosion in Lagos.

"The incident occurred in the early hours of Christmas Day... by the time our team located the place they found about 34 charred bodies," said Frank Mbah, a Lagos police spokesman.

Posted by:john frum

#3 That's right, Mullah Richard. We need to teach the petrothieves how to do things safely. Ya see, they are people too, and they have feelings, especially when they are covered with burning petroleum products. Sort of a living Ronson ad.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-12-26 19:12

#2 Hey AP, most of the oil pipeline 'explosions' in Iraq are from local idiots trying their versions of a 'hot tap' (which our Marine tells us involves a cutting torch or metal file) in order to divert the product to the black market. Very few 'explosions' over the last couple of years were actually 'planned'.

Posted by: Mullah Richard 2007-12-26 14:13

#1 These folks need to learn about hot taps, like we use to put water services on watermains without shutting them down. Maybe we could get an NGO to show them how it is done safely. After all, this is part of the culture, so we have to be sennnnnnnsitive to their cultural ways, as pyrokinetic as they are to western eyes.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-12-26 13:45

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