An explosion in a warehouse storing fireworks sparks a major fire in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city and commercial capital.
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Footage from scene Watch
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In pictures: Massive fire in Lagos
26 December 2012
Last updated at 13:45 GMT
The BBC's Tomi Oladipo says the emergency services struggled to get to the scene as crowds gathered to watch
An explosion in a warehouse has sparked a major fire in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city and commercial capital.
Officials said a building storing fireworks in the largest
market area of Lagos Island exploded, and the ensuing blaze spread to up
to nine buildings.
The blast reportedly shook windows of homes miles away and a thick cloud of smoke could be seen over the city.
Several people have been injured but it remains unclear if there were any fatalities.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
Tomi Oladipo
BBC, Lagos
A cloud of smoke billowed from the scene of the explosion, accompanied by the sparks of fireworks.
The sound of popping and crackling carried on as the fire
raged on in this densely populated part of Lagos full of closely packed
buildings in narrow streets.
Residents of the area told me they thought it was a bomb at
first when blast shook buildings around Jankara Market, the largest in
Lagos.
A few people showed me shrapnel wounds they got even though they were a fair distance from the explosion.
There was little the people could do but watch, with some trying to get photographs of the incident on their mobile phones.
Emergency workers say they had problems getting past the huge
crowds of onlookers, similar to a complaint they raised in June when a
plane crashed into a residential area in another part of Lagos.
Thousands of people in the area gathered to watch, as the fire destroyed neighbouring buildings.
Some residents jumped out of windows in panic as fireworks exploded long after the initial blaze, AFP news agency reported.
The BBC's Tomi Oladipo, who is at the scene, says he saw
people with shrapnel wounds some distance from the fire and that it is
quite likely anyone closer would have been worse affected.
The Nigerian Red Cross said it had treated at least 30 people, AFP reported.
Firefighters took about an hour to reach the scene, according to our correspondent, because of the huge crowds.
Some residents grabbed hoses from fire engines and tried to
fight the blaze themselves, but the Associated Press reports that the
engines quickly ran out of water.
Police and security officials recovered mortar-like fireworks and many empty firework shells from the scene, the agency said.
Our correspondent says that for years there have been calls
for the ban of fireworks – which are widely used during the end-of-year
holidays in Nigeria – but they have never been enforced.
Fireworks blaze in Nigeria city
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