By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
A natural gas plant at Rumuodumaya, along the Rumuokoro – Igwuruta road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has exploded, leading to fire outbreak in the area.
The explosion last night created panic among residents in the area; but no lives were lost.
A resident in the area said that the reverberation from the explosion shook the foundation of the buildings in the neigbourhood.
The incident is said to have occurred at about 8:45pm when the plant operators were discharging gas from a truck.
The fire has been put out, but operation at the plant is suspended.
On Sunday morning, the South-South Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in Rivers State, Walson Brandon, said that the agency had started evaluating the high level damage at the plant, and the safety of all staff.
The explosion, which officials said was minor, came barely two days after an explosion at a gas plant in another South-South state, Delta, killed at least four persons including three children, and left 11 others with burns.
Reacting to the explosion in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who visited the victims and the bereaved, promised to review how gas plants were sited in the state.
“I’m aware that we have some of these facilities even in more densely populated areas and I’m going to sit with the House of Assembly – we have to do an immediate legislation that will not allow such (incident) anymore,” he said.
About three weeks earlier, a fire, and possibly an explosion, had been averted after a gas leak was detected at a facility in Elibrada community in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.