It was confirmed that three men, a woman and a ten-year-old boy have died in a gas explosion that occurred in the Lagos state of Nigeria.
The fire started after a gas cylinder exploded at a gas filling station in the densely populated Mushin district of Lagos. It took close to an hour for the fire to be extinguished. It was reported that 10 people were rescued alive and were treated and released on the spot. The cause of the explosion is not yet known, as an investigation is still ongoing by the committee set to investigate. However, there is a suspicion that one of the gas cylinders exploded due to a fire near the gas shop where repair work was been carried out on a cylinder. At the site of the blast, a crowd is seen behind a barricade as rescuers and some residents carried away gas cylinders left inside the premises while the remains of destroyed vehicles were crammed into a corner. Gas explosions are common in Nigeria, especially Lagos, a city of over 14 million people. One of the most recent was in October 2020, when an explosion at a gas station killed eight people and razed many buildings. Two months prior to this incident the Lagos state government set up a team to monitor commercial outlets where gas is stored in quantity to perform a state safety audit. As of filing this report, 1,850 places have been registered, including 15 closed for non-compliance with safety and security standards, according to Lanre Mojola, director-general of the Lagos State Security Commission. Nigerian federal lawmakers, in July 2021 called on authorities to come up with a strategy to regulate the use of old gas cylinders, arguing that “continued use of old cylinders can cause explosions, especially in poor environments.
