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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Some angry youths in Umunede town in Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State have attacked officials of the state fire fighting agency for allegedly arriving late at the scene of fire outbreak.
The officials were pelted with stones and chased away at the scene of a gas explosion which occurred in the agrarian community.
The explosion is coming barely one month after scores died when a gas plant exploded in Agbor, in neighbouring Ika South council.
In the Umunede incident, a retail gas shop went up in flames after a gas cylinder exploded as a result of a suspected leakage from of the cylinders.
No human casualty was however recorded, although properties were consumed by the resulting inferno.
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One of the irate youths who refused to disclose his identified, alleged that it took a long time for men of the State Fire Service to get to the scene after the fire had escalated.
He said the late arrival of the fire fighters angered the community youths who chased the officials away.
Meanwhile, a fire service personnel who pleaded anonymity confirmed the inferno, lamenting that the youths threw all manner of weapons at them when they arrived.
“Yes, we were there. It is a gas outlet along Umunede road here. They didn’t even allow us to come near the scene.
“They asked us to go back, they started throwing cutlasses and firewood at us, they said we came late,” he stated.
