Kenyan govt. probes oil pipeline fire disaster, 109 killed - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday ordered an investigation into the cause of a fire tragedy that killed over 109 people in the capital, Nairobi, and assured victims of compensation after investigations were completed. “The government will take steps to rectify the shortcomings. There will be some results and the victims would be compensated,” Odinga said while addressing a crowd of  onlookers at the site of the fire disaster atop a car.

At least 109 people have been confirmed dead and a similar number of casualties were rushed to the state-run Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to receive treatment after a fire swept through a crowded slum near an industrial plant in the capital.

The fire at the Sinai Lunga Lunga slums, home to thousands of low-income workers employed at city’s industrial section, spread through a refuse drainage system before bursting into flames, burning dozens of people to death.

Kenyan television stations, Citizen TV, showed images of women fleeing the site with containers suggesting there was some siphoning of fuel before the disaster occurred.

Images of people fleeing the scene of the disaster with burns were also flashed on live television as the crisis unfolded.

“This is the worst disaster I have ever seen in my life. It is as if the entire world has been charred to the ground,” a rescue worker from the Nairobi City Fire Department told PANA on phone from the scene.

Odinga assured the victims that the government would take care of the medical costs of those injured as a result of the fire disaster.

The rescue worker said it was suspected that an oil pipeline operated by the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) may have burst, spilling oil into the drainage system, and the fire could have resulted from a cigarette butt hurled into the underground drainage.

“The KPC is doing investigations. They should give us a status report soon. We shall ensure that the affected people are well-taken care off,” Odinga said, amid shouts of “Kanjo,”  a reference to the Nairobi City Council Fire Department, for arriving late.

A full-scale rescue operation was underway at the site of the disaster, with officers from the Kenyan military on scene to lift the casualties.

Attempts to reach the KPC officials were fruitless as phones went unanswered.

Huge fire disasters are common in Kenya, usually leading to mass casualty numbers. In January 2008, at least 100 people were killed after a petrol tanker exploded into a ball of fire, burning to death those who were siphoning the fuel.

Some incidences have been blamed on the stealing of fuel by cartels who then set the fuel tankers on fire to demand compensation for the fuel in transit to neighbouring countries like Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

Pana 12/09/2011