{"id":41466,"date":"2024-02-02T06:01:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T06:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=41466"},"modified":"2024-02-02T06:01:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T06:01:53","slug":"nairobi-fire-gas-blast-in-kenyan-capital-kills-two-and-injures-hundreds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/02\/02\/nairobi-fire-gas-blast-in-kenyan-capital-kills-two-and-injures-hundreds\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi fire: Gas blast in Kenyan capital kills two and injures hundreds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lorry carrying gas exploded in Embakasi district around 23:30 (20:30 GMT), &#8220;igniting a huge ball of fire&#8221;, a government spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Housing, businesses and cars were damaged with video showing a huge blaze raging close to blocks of flats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier, the government had said the blast happened at a gas plant. The cause is still being established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Mwaura said the fireball from the blast had &#8220;spread widely&#8221;, and a flying gas cylinder had hit a garments and textiles warehouse, burning it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The blaze is also reported to have spread through several apartment complexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Witnesses told local media they had felt tremors immediately after the blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of the injured are said to have inhalation injuries and they include at least 25 children, the Standard newspaper reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those hurt, Boniface Sifuna, described what had happened for Reuters news agency: &#8220;I got burnt by an exploding gas canister as I was trying to escape,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It exploded right in front of me and the impact knocked me down and the flames engulfed me. I am lucky that I was strong enough to get away.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An unnamed eyewitness speaking to the Nation newspaper spoke of &#8220;huge explosions, huge fireballs, people screaming and running everywhere for fear of more explosions&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Nation journalist living in the area said everyone had left their houses after the blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kenya Red Cross said on social media that crews had been &#8220;tirelessly battling the flames&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said the blast scene had been secured and a command centre had been set up to help co-ordinate rescue operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Kenyans are hereby advised to keep off the cordoned area in order to allow the rescue mission to be carried out [with] minimal disruptions,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/976\/cpsprodpb\/18184\/production\/_132529689_crowds.png\" alt=\"Residents gather at the scene of an explosion at a makeshift gas cylinder refilling depot in Mradi estate, Embakasi district, in Nairobi, Kenya\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image caption, Residents gathered at the scene of the explosion as fire crews tackled the flames<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lorry carrying gas exploded in Embakasi district around 23:30 (20:30 GMT), &#8220;igniting a huge ball of fire&#8221;, a government spokesperson said. Housing, businesses and cars were damaged with video showing a huge blaze raging close to blocks of flats. Earlier, the government had said the blast happened at a gas plant. The cause is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8952,10446,11583,5520,287,11067,8854,9567,8057,6159,5184,5491,2264,11715,11111,11525,6030,1063,864,10987,11973,10302,5656,5349,8840,8033],"class_list":["post-41466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-blast","tag-burning","tag-capital","tag-cars","tag-children","tag-escape","tag-explosion","tag-explosions","tag-fear","tag-fire","tag-flames","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-housing","tag-injured","tag-injuries","tag-journalist","tag-kenya","tag-nairobi","tag-nairobi-fire","tag-one","tag-plant","tag-red-cross","tag-social-media","tag-strong","tag-video"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41468,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41466\/revisions\/41468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}