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Fire incinerates 200 Nigerians

An inferno overtakes villagers tapping a pipeline, burning them beyond recognition. A mass burial is started.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 13, 2006

More than 1,000 people in Nigeria, Africa's oil giant, have died in recent years when fuel they were stealing from pipelines caught fire - and officials said it would likely happen again.

"Because this thing has happened many times before, we thought it would be a deterrent, but apparently it wasn't enough deterrent for these people who died," said Lagos State Health Commissioner Tola Kasali, surveying the scene near Ilado, about 30 miles east of the main city of Lagos.

"Anywhere you have a pipeline in this country, you have this problem because people are greedy and they want quick money," Kasali said.

It was not known what set off the fire.

Police and rescue workers said villagers were collecting the gushing gas when the fuel ignited, and Lagos Police Commissioner Emmanuel Adebayo said 150 to 200 people died. The Red Cross had said it was treating survivors, but no live victims were seen.

By day's end, about 100 of the dead had been interred, and Kasali said cleanup efforts would resume today .

"We just decided to give them a mass burial because no one can recognize them - even their family members can't identify them," he said. "We're concerned that if we don't do that, we'll create a health emergency in Lagos since it happened by the shore and the water will just flow back into the city."

The pipeline was run by Nigeria's state oil company and was used to transport gasoline across the country for national consumption.

The impoverished people of Nigeria often tap pipelines, seeking fuel for cooking or resale on the black market. The highly volatile gasoline can ignite, incinerating those collecting it.

Nigeria, which normally pumps 2.5-million barrels of crude per day, is Africa's largest producer of oil and the fifth-largest source of imports to the United States. It was unlikely Friday's blast would affect exports.

The pipeline explosion slowed a drop in crude oil futures as the International Energy Agency sharply cut its forecasts for world oil demand.

Nigerian militants have kidnapped foreign oil workers to press their demands for local control of oil revenues by inhabitants of the oil-producing south, who feel cheated out of the wealth produced in their back yards.

Other groups have used kidnappings as bargaining chips to prod oil companies to increase jobs or improve benefits. Hostages are usually released unharmed.

On Wednesday, a gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed an American worker for the U.S. drilling equipment maker Baker Hughes Inc. The FBI is helping with the investigation.

[Last modified May 13, 2006, 08:35:38]