The 2006 Abule Egba pipeline explosion is a

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

that occurred in the heavily populated neighborhood of

Abule Egba Abule Egba is a neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria. Abule egba are under Alimosho LGA of Lagos. The neighborhood was the site of a petroleum pipeline explosion, the 2006 Abule Egba pipeline explosion The 2006 Abule Egba pipeline explosion is a di ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, on 26 December 2006, killing hundreds of people. There were originally believed to be around 500 deaths, but it was later confirmed that the loss was smaller. The incident occurred after an elevated

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

carrying petroleum products was punctured by

thieves Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...

earlier at midnight (local time), attracting hundreds of

scavengers Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

in the district who collected the fuel using plastic containers, allegedly to siphon fuel into a tanker, before puddles of fallen fuel were ignited after dawn. The cause of the

explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...

remains unknown, while witnesses have stated that the broken pipeline was tapped when the blast occurred. The number of people killed is unclear, but is evidenced to be in the hundreds. Abiodun Orebiyi, the secretary-general of the Nigerian

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

(NRC), estimated that there were at least 200 dead but indicated that there was no official death toll and was unable to determine the final number of deaths, stating that the NRC " oesn'tknow if it is 300, 400 or 500". He also added that 60 people had been taken to the

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

with serious burns, while a number of houses had been destroyed, along with a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

and a church. Another senior official, Ige Oladimeji, was quoted as saying that there has been 260 documented to be dead by nightfall. On the day of the explosion, a

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news agency

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

estimated 500 bodies in the scene.

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'' Explosions in 2006 2006 industrial disasters 2006 in Nigeria Explosions in Nigeria Pipeline accidents

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2006 in the environment Deaths caused by petroleum looting December 2006 events in Nigeria {{Nigeria-hist-stub

See also

References

External links