How fire from oil spillage almost razed Foursquare campground

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 was a day that petrochemical fire would have razed the expansive camp of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria located in Ajebo, a community in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Some villages in the vicinity of the camp such as Derupatan, Ajebo, Ashaidun, Oniworo and Fidiwo would have also been reduced to rubble by the raging fire, but for providence.
The incident occurred less than a week to the commencement of the annual national convention of the denomination slated to hold from Monday 10th to Sunday 16th Novem­ber, this year, at the Foursquare Campground, Ajebo. The main gate of the camp is beside Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Alapako/Ogun­makin area.
The fire reportedly broke out at about 12noon and burnt uncontrollably for several hours before it stopped by itself. Some nota­ble members of the church, who were at the camp with a view to putting necessary things in place prior to the convention, and scores of villagers were said to have been very alarmed.
When Saturday Sun met with the Chair­person of the Foursquare Camp Board, Rev (Mrs) Yetunde Sodipo, who is the District Overseer of the church in Ifo District, Ogun State, she said the authorities of the camp no­ticed oil spillage on the Asha River that pass­es through the camp about three months ago. The stretch of the river that passes through the camp is about three kilometres.
Letters, according to her, were written to the manager of the Nigerian National Petrole­um Corporation (NNPC) in Abeokuta and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Owode- Egba, informing them of the development and the need to address the situation.
The Camp Manager, Rev Ebun Bella, who was at the camp when the incident oc­curred, took over the narration from there. He explained that at about 12noon on Tuesday, he suddenly noticed a thick black smoke bil­lowing into the air, with fire and intermittent explosions from the Asha River.
“I suddenly noticed the fire at the back of the old National Temple. The smoke was too thick and nobody could stay in about 600 metres away from the river because of the heat from the fire. People at the camp ran for safety. Also, car owners hurriedly jumped into their vehicles and drove off towards the second gate for safety.
“The smoke covered the old National Temple, Harold Curtis Hostel, the Camp Can­teen, the Foursquare Women International (FWI) building and other hostels that are not far from the Asha River. It was an ugly de­velopment.
“The fire was burning on top of the water and also burnt the green vegetation along the river, including trees, palm trees and bam­boos, along the river. The river flows from Olosun, Ajebo, Ashaidun side through the camp to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. So, we noticed that the fire came from those ar­eas along the river path, and burnt towards the expressway.
“We thank God the fire incident did not happen during dry or harmattan season; oth­erwise, the whole camp might have been burnt down. Also, we thank God that the na­tional convention had not started. If it had, I could not imagine the kind of commotion that would have engulfed the camp.
“But about three months ago, we had no­ticed oil spillage on the river. So, we wrote letters to the NNPC, Abeokuta and the DPO, Owode-Egba Police Divisional Headquarters. The NNPC later told us verbally that the leak­age point of the petrol pipeline that caused the spillage had been repaired. So, the NNPC said it would not pose any danger to us again. Thereafter, the spillage stopped. But we sud­denly saw the fire on Tuesday afternoon.”
Bella also said the police have begun in­vestigation on the fire incident, adding that a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Ogun State, on Wednesday, led 11 other policemen on an assessment visit to the scene of the in­ferno.
One of the campers, Mr. Tosin Iwala, told Saturday Sun that when he suddenly saw the thick black smoke and the fire, he left the caf­eteria in front of the old National Temple and ran away.
“The smoke overwhelmed the camp. I did not know that it was oil spillage that caused it. I was only imagining how fire could be burn­ing like that on top of a flowing river, not a stream. We thank God that nobody died in the camp and none of our property was razed.”
When the reporter visited Derupatan, one of the villages in the camp area, a young man, who introduced himself as Sherifudeen Afo­larin, lamented that a septuagenarian lost his life to the fire incident.
He said the old man, Pa Idris Ajinikirun, who was blessed with heavy beard and mous­tache, was working in his farm when the fire broke out, saying: “The information I heard was that the old man did not die immediately. He was roasted by the fire at about 2p.m on Tuesday. He was taken to hospitals. He was rejected in the first two hospitals he was taken to and died in the third one where he was ad­mitted.