Lagos, Nigeria – Clutching photos, residents searched frantically on Wednesday for relatives still missing after a massive fire at a gasoline pipeline in this overcrowded Nigerian city, hoping their loved ones were not among the 265 people killed.
Olaniyi Adebayo, a 46-year- old transport worker, gave a picture of his 15-year-old daughter, Adebola, to Red Cross rescue workers as he tried to find her.
“It is not all who are dead; some are in hospitals and we don’t know where,” he said after looking for his daughter at several clinics. “My wife is at home crying. … We just had Christmas together. Adebola was going to join the church choir.”
The pipeline exploded Tuesday after being illegally tapped by thieves who had been carting away gas in tankers for resale. The thieves had failed to reseal the pipeline, prompting hundreds of residents to rush to collect spurting gas with cans, buckets and plastic bags, witnesses said.
The fire swept through the crowd, charring scores of bodies beyond recognition.
One woman, who declined to give her name, said many survivors were afraid to report to health authorities, fearing arrest for stealing gas.
Most of the bodies were hastily buried in a mass grave to prevent an outbreak of cholera, which periodically sweeps through Nigerian slums.
