The Lagos armoury explosion was the accidental detonation of
a large stock of military high explosives at a storage facility in the city of
Lagos, Nigeria on 27 January 2002. The fires created by the debris from this
explosion burnt down a large section of Northern Lagos, and created a panic
that spread to other areas. As people fled the flames, many stumbled into a
concealed canal and were drowned.
The Ikeja military cantonment was a large military
cantonment and storage area in the city of Lagos, situated north of the city
centre near the districts of Isolo and Onigbongo. In January 2002, the base
was being used to store a large quantity of "high calibre bombs", as
well as other sundry explosives. On the afternoon of 27 January, a fire broke
out in a street market being held next to the base, which was also home to the
families of soldiers. At around 18:00 the fire apparently spread to the
base's main munitions store, causing an enormous explosion. This blast killed
many of the base staff and their families and immediately destroyed several
nearby streets, flying debris starting numerous fires further afield. Tremors
from the explosion also collapsed many buildings in the area,trapping
people in the ruins and starting new fires from damaged cooking appliances.
These tremors were so powerful that windows shattered 15 km away and the blast
could be felt more than 50 km inland.
Also thrown up by the blast were thousands of as yet
unexploded military munitions, which fell in a rain of exploding shells,
grenades and bullets casting further destruction across most of the northern
section of the city. Thousands of people from Ikeja and neighbouring districts,
seeing explosions and fires breaking out, fled their houses in an attempt to
leave the affected areas.As the streets became more and more crowded,
explosions amid the fleeing crowds from shells falling from the initial
explosion created panic. A stampede developed as panicking people fled in all
directions, trampling those who fell underfoot. Reports also describe people
jumping from burning high-rise buildings and being killed in desperate attempts
to cross the busy Ikeja dual carriageway.
In central Lagos there is a large canal, which runs from
north to south parallel to the Isolo-Oshodi expressway through the centre of
the city. It borders a banana plantation, which many refugees thought might be
safe from the falling shells and spreading fires.Unfortunately, the canal
separated the plantation from the city and was covered by water hyacinth and
thus invisible in the darkness. As the crowd surged towards the plantation,
hundreds of panicking people fell into the water. Those on the bottom were
crushed by yet more people falling into the waterway, and in the struggling
confusion, at least 600 people were killed, many of them children. Many of
these bodies drifted down the canal, some being found as far as ten kilometers
from the explosion.
The affected areas of the city burned through most of the
night, with explosions continuing to boil out of the wrecked armoury until the
afternoon of 28 January. The emergency services were woefully inadequate to
deal with the devastation, as there were not enough fire crews or water points
available to cope with the fire, which consequently consumed large parts of the
city's northern suburbs. City hospitals were also utterly overwhelmed, many
injured going for hours without any medical attention even if they did manage
to reach an undamaged medical facility.The military, too, having suffered the
loss of many of its Lagos-based personnel in the initial explosion, was not in
a position to assume control of the city and did not appear in large numbers
until late on 28 January.
By the evening of 28 January, most of the fires were under
control and people began returning to the city and attempting to find loved
ones lost in the stampede.Many of the dead were children, separated from
their families in the confusion and subsequently crushed in the crowds that
filled the streets and canal. On top of the dead from the canal, several
hundred people had died in the city itself: killed by falling munitions,
trampled by the crowds, or trapped in the fires.
The final death toll is hard to compute, although the Red
Cross claims that at least 1,000 bodies were recovered and a number of people
were reported missing and never found. In addition to the dead, at least
5,000 people were injured in the disaster and over 12,000 left homeless, with
entire districts of the city gutted. About 20,000 people had fled the city on
the night of the explosion, and the survivors gradually returned over the
course of the next week.
Compiled by Opeyemi Adeoluwa
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