The tank farm fires

A recent tank farm explosion in the  Navy Town area of Ijegun, Lagos State, the third in recent history, left residents of the neighbourhood scurrying to safety. The Ijegun depot reportedly burst into flames after a diesel tanker bearing 33,000 litres of fuel lost control and fell. Although the swift response of the emergency and safety agencies curtailed the spread of the inferno, it is a meet and proper to bring the situation in the farms to the front burner of a national conversation, especially given the fact that the harmattan season is still on course across the country.

There was a fire outbreak in December 2017, and yet another earlier this month. These outbreaks were not due to the derailment of any tankers but the dangerous habits of those whose livelihoods revolve around the tank farms. Apart from the heavy financial losses on the part of the companies whose tank farms were set on fire, the environmental implications for the society cannot be discounted. Even if the different safety and security agencies in charge were up to their billing during the incidents, ensuring that there was no loss of human lives, the destruction and economic losses were huge. The fires also caused ecological upsets around the tank farms.

Elsewhere, incidents like these would have been taken better care of to minimise collateral damage. For instance, the careless attitudes of the itinerant and ubiquitous touts who indulge in the smoking of cigarettes and marijuana in the usually rowdy environments would certainly have been taken care of through stringent laws and meticulous monitoring. The owners of the tank farms must show more than a passing interest in their safety and security and ensure the strictest adherence to the provisions of the extent environmental laws and regulations. In any case, we wonder what the insurance companies which underwrite their liabilities have been up to. It should be part of their duties to monitor these farms with a view to ascertaining their level of compliance with the environmental laws.

It would certainly be foolhardy to wait until human lives are lost before necessary steps are taken to enforce control and compliance. It is crucial that order and control be brought to bear on the environment of the tank farms. The owners of the farms have to make better arrangements for their safety and security in order to prevent future avoidable fires and other accidents. Also, the Lagos State government must ensure compliance with environmental laws in order to prevent further losses and abuses.

We do not subscribe to the typically Nigerian attitude of taking appropriate action only after the most heinous damage has been done, especially if they could have been prevented and avoided. Every effort has to be made to ensure that these fire incidents do not recur.