At Least 102 Dead After Pipeline Explosion and Fire in Kenya
At least 102 people were killed after a fire broke out after an oil pipeline exploded on Monday on the outskirts of Nairobi.
A radio reporter at the scene said scores of injured people were rushed to hospital.
Some of the dead were burned beyond recognition in the fire that occurred along an oil pipeline near a fuel depot at a Nairobi industrial area.
Rescuers were responding, but emergency vehicles were having trouble reaching the scene, with fears the fire would spread into a nearby slum.
The industrial area houses factories with chemicals and is also home to offices of British and United States-based companies.
Witnesses told the radio that a pipeline that passes through the Sinai slum burst earlier in the morning. Some residents may have been siphoning fuel at the time of the explosion.
Sinai is part of a belt of slums collectively called Mukuru that run along the length of Nairobi’s industrial area, about 10 kilometres outside the city.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the slums live in shacks that are built closely together using highly inflammable materials.
Efforts have been made by the government to relocate the slum dwellers, who have no legal title to their houses, but to no avail as residents said they would have been kicked out without compensation.
Earlier this year, a fire in a slum near the Nairobi airport killed two people and left 20,000 people homeless. In 2009, a fire erupted on an overturned tanker, killing 100 people in western Kenya.
Police regularly warns citizens not to approach dangerous scenes, such as oil fires, but for many living in dire poverty, the chance to retrieve free petrol is too enticing.
Re: At Least 102 Dead After Pipeline Explosion and Fire in Kenya
In order to understand why they were trying to steal, all you have to do is to take a look at the place where they live
To them, it likely looked like a river of gold.
Re: At Least 102 Dead After Pipeline Explosion and Fire in Kenya
i bet we wont hear about this in mainstream news, crazy how massive US and british companies run their pipelines through villages.
something about this story pisses me off.