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Tessy Igomu
Wednesday, November 27, 2019, started on a boisterous note for residents of Aduke Street, off Ojo Road, Ajegunle, in Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos. Despite the searing heat, commercial activities went undisturbed.
Out of the blue, the lively neighbourhood was rocked by a loud explosion that left people scampering to safety. In no time, several houses were engulfed in flames. And by the time emergency responders succeeded in putting out the fire, no fewer than seven persons had been burnt to death, while 21 others sustained burn injuries.
The fire was caused by an explosion at a gas refill shop due to a leakage. Investigations revealed that a resident made a phone call near the shop, which triggered the explosion.
Barely a week after the tragidy, Victoria Island, a highbrow area of Lagos, was thrown into panic when a gas cylinder exploded at Four Points By Sheraton Hotel. The incident occurred as artisans were welding in the hotel premises. Aside from several people being injured, the explosion caused extensive damage to vehicles and property.
On December 14, 2019, a gas explosion in Dan Musa Town in Danmusan Local Government Area of Kastina State left eight members of a family dead. A cylinder reportedly exploded when one of the victims was cooking.
Another, on Monday, January 16, 2018, occurred at a refill station in Magodo, a suburb of Lagos, also left several dead. And in September last year, over 50 persons were left with various degrees of burns at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, Nasarawa State.
For years, gas explosions, especially from gas stations, have led to loss of life and property. The list of such incidents is long.
One of such incidents that still lingers as it shook the country was the Nnewi gas explosion that killed over 120 people on Christmas Eve in Nnewi, Anambra State in 2015. The victims were mostly those that returned home to celebrate the Yuletide and had gone to the gas plant to refill their cylinders.
Losses from gas-related disasters, experts insist are avoidable. They have blamed it more on the alarming manner in which gas plants and retail shops keep springing up in residential areas. Many have also blamed it on the proliferation of fake gas cylinders in the country.
On August 1, director-general of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Osita Aboloma, announced that hundreds of imported cylinders were impounded for failing to meet safety requirements. With the revelation, analysts aver that N38 million is capable of bringing up to 1.8 million cylinders into the country and less than one million homes currently use Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking in Nigeria.
With the Federal Government’s launching a campaign to ensure that up to 13.8 million households adopt LPG for their cooking in the next five years, Nigerians are living on borrowed time.
Aside from worries arising from unsafe cylinders, there are also fears that majority of those operating gas refill stations know next to nothing about the havoc it is capable of causing, if not properly handled. Also rife is the belief that proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not usually carried out to establish the suitability of such businesses before they are located, especially in residential areas.
Based on the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) guidelines derived from the Petroleum Regulation Act for the construction and operation of gas and petrol stations, a gas operator must obtain a certificate from the SON and meet specification and safety specifications. Also, gas detector, mechanical leak tester, warning notices, personnel protective wear for plant operators and fire safety certification from federal or state fire departments, among others, must be obtained.
The guidelines also stipulate that the total number of petrol stations within two kilometres stretch of the site on both sides of the road should not be more than four. Also, before approval is given for construction, 10 documents must be obtained, among them, an EIA report for underground storage tank capacities and a letter from the land and survey department. However, reports and investigations have revealed that most of these guidelines are not adhered to, especially in a place like Lagos State, as gas stations keep sprouting up within the same area and in busy neighbourhoods.
This situation has heightened fears among residents, with many describing it as sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Some areas that have gas plants precariously located in them are Aye Bus Stop in Isolo, Ijesha Road, Okota, Isheri-Igando, Ajao Estate-Oke-Afa, Agbele-Abule Egba and Oriola Street in Ketu. Expressing dissatisfaction, apprehensive residents have questioned the legality of locating such a highly inflammable venture among them and if such business owners have the backing of the DPR.
“Gas business has suddenly become an all-comers affair that can be started anywhere, without due regard for public safety. I shudder anytime I remember that I stay close to a gas plant,” said a resident of Ilepo, close to Ronik Polytechnic, Ejigbo, Lagos.
“I am always scared for my life. Anytime I hear a hissing sound from the plant, I almost always jump out of my skin. Of late and with the heat experienced lately, I fear the worst might happen. Something needs to be done fast to save us from untimely and gruesome death.”
Osondu Igbokwe, a resident of Peter Agha, Oke-Afa, Isolo, also shares this fear. He said a mega filling station located by Canoe Bus Stop has kept residents on edge.
“With what is happening around and with the heat of late, anything can happen. I have not really seen any serous firefighting equipment with which they can combat any hazard, if it ever occurs. I seriously doubt their level of preparedness.” Igbokwe said.
Experts explain that gas explosions could occur due to a number of factors. These include substandard gas cylinders, improper use of gas furnace or appliance, leakage due to gas lines being hooked up incorrectly, worn-out or rusty gas lines, defective equipment, violations of codes and standards governing the safe handling of gas or propane and faulty manufacturing procedures used in building gas-tanks for automobiles
A safety expert, Chukwudube Okoli, said he noticed that most cylinders used by residents and retailers to store gas are old and rusty, adding that a little pressure is all that is needed to cause massive explosion. He also observed that most of the refill shops, which are mostly packed full with cylinders, are not well ventilated.
His words: “Safety regulations must be strictly enforced. Urgency must be placed on getting people deeply educated on gas management before going into the business. Some people in the business have no professional training on how to handle gas, detect gas leakage or manage fire outbreak. That type of training is also lacking in homes. International best practice demands and makes it imperative that safety standards must apply to everyone who installs, alters, maintains or operates gas technologies. All licensed contractors must be abreast with changes in the laws and regulations guiding operations in the business of dispensing gas.
“It also appears that state governments don’t also stick to the master plan of their respective states, which is why people construct gas plants just about anywhere they find space. Routine checks should be carried out on these gas plant stations to avoid explosions. It is very important that the authorities wake up to ensure that master plans of their respective states are adhered to, so as to reduce incidents and number of casualties through gas explosions.”
Akinsanya Owolabi, an engineer, blamed recurring gas disasters on failure of regulatory agencies to effectively carry out their duties. He insisted that state 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 punitive actions. He urged the DPR to no longer trifle with the enforcement of rules on the operation of gas depots or retail refill centres.
Expressing worry on the consequences of Nigerian homes contending with rampant cylinder explosions in kitchens, the national coordinator of the Women in LPG Group, Mrs. Nkechi Obi, warned that such explosions would be unavoidable as long as fake and sub-standard cylinders continued to be imported massively into Nigeria.
She said unrestricted importation of fake cylinders was a real and present danger, akin to bringing deadly explosives into the home.
“More so, importing cylinders is harmful to the Nigerian economy and goes contrary to the quest by the nation to become self-reliant because cylinders are now manufactured here. Using fake cylinders also poses severe danger to our womenfolk, who face daily risk of death or injury in the event of explosion of fake cylinders in their kitchens,’ she said.’
Obi, who is also the CEO of the Techno Oil Group, reiterated the need for government to come hard on countries dumping fake cylinders in Nigeria.
Against the backdrop of recurring gas explosions, the president of the Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA), Mr. Nuhu Yakubu, said there is need for greater enforcement of LPG standards and code of practice within the industry across the country.
“Without this, the proliferation of substandard and undocumented gas facilities and infrastructure will remain a recurrent issue, which ultimately undermines the efforts of law-abiding industry practitioners,” he said.
He said the agency was collaborating with regulatory agencies like SON and DPR to draft and develop processes and procedures to ensure that best practices are upheld within the industry to ensure the safety of life and property.
Yakubu also stressed that the organisation was committed to cooperating with regulators and government to reduce the negative incidents recorded over time, adding that the incidents have highlighted the need to address three main industry objectives: safe handling and best practises in LPG, loss of containment (prevention of gas leaks) and successful disaster management.
SON, on its part, said it has started an onslaught to reduce gas explosions in the country by mopping up substandard life-endangering LPG cylinders through enforcement activities.
Aboloma said efforts have been intensified to subject LPG cylinders to laboratory tests and analysis to confirm their conformity. He promised that any cylinder that failed critical safety parameters on construction, performance and markings would be seized and destroyed.
“A lot of cylinders have been discovered to have expired and some supposedly new ones were found to be badly welded, thus posing great danger to life and property as potential time bombs waiting to explode.”
The DG further revealed that a lot of LPG cylinders in the country were either older than the recommended life span of 15 years, as stipulated by the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS 69:2013) or are of low quality and unsafe to use. He noted that LPG was highly flammable and the use of rusty and dilapidated cylinders could cause explosions that could cost life and property.
Despite the Federal Government’s efforts to clamp down on illegal gas plants and roadside LPG retailers and encourage a new methodology, whereby somebody would have to drop an empty cylinder and pick another one with gas, to discourage decanting (transferring from one gas cylinder to another).
Despite the assurances given by the various regulatory bodies, Nigerians insist that as they transit from wood and charcoal to gas, it has become imperative that inherent dangers are reduced to the barest minimum. They also called for an end to the vicious cycle of needless loss of life and properties to gas explosions.
In the words of a property lawyer, Charles Igbojionu, comprehensive survey of all gas-dispensing installations, stations and shops in the country must be carried out, and those found to have breached established safety requirements must be shut down until standard requirements are met.
