17 Died, Says Lasema
Experts are claiming that the incident that occurred at Abule Ado in which over 100 houses and several cars were destroyed, over 17 persons dead, among them a reverend sister at the Bethlehem Girls College situated in the area, may have been attributed to what is known as Vapour Cloud explosion ( VPE).
The experts insist the explosion couldn’t have been caused by a bomb explosion because there is nothing on the site to suggest a bomb impact.
If there was a bomb explosion it would have created a crater, the experts say. Truly, when eWorldnews Aaron Ukodie visited the scene earlier in the day no crater was found around the area to suggest bomb blast.
The experts who are conversant with such incidences and who are quoting a report by one Engineer F Geri maintain that the VPE may have resulted from a flammable mixture of vapour, gas, aerosol, or mist, in which flame speeds accelerate to sufficiently high velocities to produce significant over-pressures.
According to Ayodeji Bakare, a US-based Nigerian Chemical Engineer and certified process hazard analysts VCEs are generally associated with the release of a sufficient quantity of flammable gas or vaporising liquid from a gas tank, process or transport vessel of piping system.
The report went on to say that VPEs may cause damage to buildings and people may be injured by the blast wave, additional indirect effects from missile generation or formation, ground shock, and fire.
The experts say, an ignition source is needed to initiate the explosion, while higher energy ignition sources can lead to a more severe explosion than do lower energy source.
The report went further to state that the probability of explosion rather than fire increases with the size of the cloud, since the quantity of the mixture within the flammable range increases.
Eye-witness reports claim that “a tipper in the area got stocked and as it kept revving and trying to free itself created sparks in the process… with air filled with fuel vapour that resulted to the explosion”.
Meanwhile the Director-General of the Lagos State Emergence Agency ( LASEMA) Dr Olufemi Damilola in his initial report says the causes of the fire are not yet to be determined while security agents are investigating the cause of the explosion.
He said 17 bodies have been recovered while 25 casualties are being treated for injuries on site. The reverend sister, Henrietta Alokha died while principal of Bethlehem Girls College died while celebrating mass for the students of the school. She said to have died trying to rescue the students from the scene of the explosion.
