Ayodele Olalere
Eyewitnesses have narrated how a fire incident which occurred late Tuesday night at Iju Ishaga, a Lagos State suburb was caused by a gas explosion with over 30 shops burnt and goods worth millions of naira destroyed.
When The National Xpress Newspaper visited the scene of the incident, some of the eye witnesses who spoke said the incident happened at 9:50pm when traders and shop owners had closed and some were planning to close for the day.
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One Mrs Yusuf, whose house was nearly razed by the fire, told The Nigerian Xpress that the fire started when a gas cylinder in one of the shops where gas were sold exploded.
According to her, a minivan had supplied filled gas cylinders to the shop but in the process of offloading the cylinders from the van nto the shop, the driver of the van and his motor boys noticed one of the cylinders was leaking and made efforts to block the leakage.
However, their efforts did not yield positive results as the more they attempted to block the leakage,, the gas kept leaking.
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With the gas already, the situation grew worse when a Keke Napep passing by scratched the body of the stationary van which ignited fire and spread to all the shops within the axis and adjoining road.
The Keke Napep and the van were reported to have been burnt while the driver and his motor boys escaped with a whisker.
The account was corroborated by one Segun who was attending a church service at a Celestial Church behind the scene of the incident.
According to him, the church service was in session when the worshippers heard a loud bang. He said at first, they thought it was a bomb explosion and everyone had to rush out of the building for escape.
He further told The Nigerian Xpress that the gas explosion was caused by a leaked gas cylinder in the shop, adding that it took the intervention of the fire service who arrived at the scene to prevent the fire from reaching the church building, a LAPO office and a nearby fuel station.
At the scene of the incident, victims were seen salvaging what remains of their goods.