Eleven people on Wednesday in Abuja suffered varying degrees of burn from a gas explosion that occurred at Rosy Restaurant in Area 11. The victims, wh
Eleven people on Wednesday in Abuja suffered varying degrees of burn from a gas explosion that occurred at Rosy Restaurant in Area 11. The victims, who were taken to Asokoro General Hospital, suffered between 40 and 50 degrees of burn. A pregnant woman, who works in the restaurant and identified herself simply as Ajayi, said everybody was going about their normal business when the gas cylinder exploded.
Ajayi, who is three months pregnant, said she needed to go for scanning to ascertain the condition of her baby. The explosion affected her face, legs and hands. Another worker at the restaurant, Rachael Awu, said she was attending to her duty when the gas explosion rocked the restaurant.
She said, “I was serving customers and I went to pack his meal, as I looked back, I just heard the explosion. The fire started from the back of the restaurant where one of the cylinders was placed. One of the gas cylinders was stationed outside the restaurant in the open space, and there is another cylinder inside.”
Another victim, Promise who suffered some degrees of injury on his two hands and a partial burn on his face, said the explosion was sudden, adding that he was attending to customers when he heard a loud noise.
The acting Managing Director, Health and Human Services Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr Aminu Mile, while on a visit to the victims, said the circumstances surrounding the explosion would be unravelled. He said the HHSS would do everything to help the victims. The acting MD, Asokoro Hospital, Dr Nnabuchi Chidi, said the hospital would refer some of the victims to the National Hospital, Abuja. He said 11 of the victims were brought to the hospital, adding that they had been stabilised.
