A full breakdown of the casualties of the explosion, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says was from gas cylinders, felt several kilometres away, such as in Surulere, Ijegun, Egbeda, Okota, Isheri-Olofin, Festac, Shibiri, Iba and Satellite Town has been confirmed.
However, some people said the explosion was caused by truck driver tipping off sand close to a woman cooking near a pipeline, which resulted into fire.
Two reverend sisters teaching at Bethlehem Girls College and five students of the college were said to have died in the explosion.
Also, about 60 students of the college were reportedly injured and were rushed to the nearby naval hospital in Satellite town.
The casualties also included a family of four.
“The explosion started about 8a.m. when the woman was cooking with her gas on the pipeline,” a witness said.
A resident of the area, Mr. John Alozie, said he was preparing for church when he heard the sound of the explosion and ran out of the house with his family members, only to see a thick fire.
According to him, it is God that saved his family.
Alozie said a few hours after they came out of their house, the explosion continued as roofs of houses were shattered and vehicles parked on the street were also damaged.
He said: “While we were running, those who were still in their apartment came out and started running too. But some people were trapped in their houses. It is a serious devastation. Houses people laboured to build were destroyed in their presence. It was after two hours that fire-fighters were able to arrive the scene of the inferno.
“The whole Abule-Ado has been ravaged. This is beyond human comprehension. I just moved into my house two months ago, now this is happening; I don’t know where to get money to roof my house back.
“After I was able to take my family to a save place, I came back to the scene of the incident to assist some people, especially women who were trapped trying to escape from the inferno with their kids.”
Some residents, whose houses were affected, were moving out of the area in drove. Those who had left for church before the explosion couldn’t salvage anything from their houses.
Also affected by the vibration is the house of the Aare Onakankafo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams.
One member of the house, who did not want his name in print, said they were sleeping when the incident occurred.
According to him, the windows and ceiling of house were shattered by the explosion.
The Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Oladele Daji, was on ground to access the situation.
Daji said the Nigerian Navy would give the needed support in the investigation into the actual cause of the inferno.
He added: “The relevant agencies of government are carrying out the assessment to determine what happened. With what we have seen on the ground and the evidence gathered so far, there is complexity of some people dealing with cooking gas; that is judging from the several cylinders scattered all over the incident scene. Some witness believed that there was gas leakage that had saturated the air, just waiting for something to ignite it and that a truck provided it.
“As at the time of I got the report, there were 60 children from Bethlehem School with varying injuries brought to Navy Hospital. I am sure those of them who have been stabilised will be discharged hopefully today to go home and those who need follow up treatment would be given.”
The Director General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the incident will be investigated.
Oke-Osanyintolu also stated that the agency could not give the fatality and casualty figure as rescue operation was still ongoing.
He said the family had prepared to go to church when the ugly incident occurred. They have been evacuated and deposited at the mortuary.”
The headquarters of the Lagos Province 3 of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) located on 24 Road, Festac Town, Lagos, is among over 70 buildings affected by the pipeline explosion.
The explosion, which occurred more than a kilometre away from the church premises, shattered its glass windows and injured worshippers.
A parish of the First Baptist Church near the RCCG parish also lost a part of its roof to the explosion.
The roof of a parish of the Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) located at 7th Avenue, Festac Town, was also blown off by the explosion which equally shattered the roof of the Ark Parish of the RCCG at 1st Avenue, many kilometres away from the explosion scene.
The Bethlehem Secondary School, a boarding school owned by the Catholic Church at Abule-Ado, was brought down by the explosion, with many of its students injured and some feared dead.
The Odic Plaza, a motor parts mall and warehouse, Bush Bar Hotel, Green Horse Plaza which houses tyres, Arch Angel Catholic Church, Chino Plaza with many goods in it, and a mechanic village, all located inside the Trade Fair Complex, Ojo, were all hit by the explosion.
The cause of the explosion has yet to be ascertained, according to NEMA, which is yet to confirm the death toll.
A witness, Mrs. Patience Erebogaya, said she was preparing to go to work in a nearby hotel when the Bethel School was scattered by the explosion and injured her.
The victim said that mass celebration was going on in the Catholic school when the explosion reduced the school to rubble, trapping many students.
The Chairman of Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, Mr. Valetine Buriamoh, at the scene, ruled out pipeline vandalism as the cause of the explosion.
He said that the magnitude of the damage was beyond pipeline vandalism.
The fire, which started at 9p.m., was still on as at 3p.m.
The NEMA said over 50 buildings were destroyed in the explosion which rocked Abule-Ado, near the Trade Fair Complex on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
The Acting Coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development in an interview.
Farinloye said that the cause of the incident and casualty figure were currently unknown as “rescue operations are still going on in the affected area’’.
The explosion shook many houses in Ijegun, Festac Town and other communities in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area up to Agege.
It was also learnt that a Catholic priest lost his life while making attempts to get students out of their dormitory at Bethlehem Girls High School, Abule-Ado, according to a witness.
Over 20 students were said to have been trapped in the dormitory.
Residents said they encountered difficulty trying to get the students out and the priest who had also come to lend a hand died in the process.
“He died trying to save the lives of those students,” one of the residents said.
The identity of the priest was not made known, but residents said he worshipped at a nearby Catholic church.
“The next thing we saw was that some parts of Bethlehem School had collapsed, and people started running,” he said.