Kenya: Gas fires kills 100 (VIDEO)
Residents of a Nairobi slum look at badly burned human remains at the scene of a fierce fire on September 12, 2011 that resulted from an explosion of a fuel pipeline. A police commander said more than 100 people had been killed in the explosion at Nairobi’s Lunga Lunga industrial area, which is surrounded by the densely packed tin-shack housing of the Sinai slum.
More than 100 Kenyans met fiery deaths today when a leaking gasoline pipeline exploded in Nairobi's crowded Sinai slum.
The pipeline brings fuel from from Mombasa port all the way to Nairobi where the pipe runs through the overcrowded township. When the pipe springs a leak, poor Kenyans gather to collect the gasoline in oil tins, wash buckets and plastic jerry cans to sell to taxi drivers and others.
It's an extremely dangerous way to make money. The shifting wind blew an ember from a nearby rubbish dump. When it hit the gas leak the explosion became a powerful fireball. Men, women and children were charred.
“All I can say is pole sana,” said Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, using the Swahili words for condolences, according to the New York Times. “These people died like goats.”
It is not the first time scores of poor Kenyans have died in a terrible blaze while scooping up spilled fuel.
In 2009, at least 113 people were burned to death when a huge crowd descended on an overturned gasoline tanker, which then blew up. Several other spills have exploded into infernos, and a few weeks ago the Kenyan police were criticized for firing in the air and wounding a woman in an attempt to drive people away from a fuel spill.
Deadly fuel spill fires are also common occurences in Nigeria, where oil is produced and refined.
A heavy stench of garbage, gasoline and charred flesh hung over the Sinai slum, which is near the Nairobi International airport.
“This just shows you how these people will do anything to generate a coin,” said Johnson Muthama, a member of parliament. “Just look at them.” He gestured toward a crowd of thousands of onlookers, mostly young men in grubby clothes, staring gape-mouthed at all the bodies on the ground. “They are ready to risk their lives for anything.”
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