Ogun: 7-year-old child dies, others badly burnt in gas explosion
Two persons, a filling station attendant and a toddler, died in an explosion at a gas plant in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta, Ogun State on Thursday.
The incident reportedly occurred around 11.30am when gas escaped from a tank a welder was working on. A generator adjacent to the gas plant caught fire from the vapour in the process.
An eyewitness said the fire trailed the vapour to RABENG Oil filling station, causing an explosion.
Two attendants, identified as Jaiye and Ibrahim, got trapped in the inferno while seven others, including a seven year-old child, sustained various degree of burns.
The seven-year-old and Ibrahim reportedly died as a result of the burns they sustained.
Goods and properties worth millions of naira were reportedly destroyed in the fire which spread to many shops, as well as destroying a Toyota van parked inside the station.
Firefighters from the state fire service put out the fire which was said to have raged for two hours.
Ogun State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Akinwande Aboluwoye explained that “On getting there, we found out that the incident was caused by a welder trying to weld very close to a gas filling plant. And very close to that place, you can see a generator, which caught fire. Since we know that fire is just like a magnet, all the nearby shops and a filling station were gutted by fire.
“The corpses of the deceased have been deposited in the mortuary of the State General Hospital, Ijaiye in Abeokuta, while those injured are receiving treatment in the same hospital,” Aboluwoye said.
