Nigeria in pictures: The firemen of Lagos
- Published
It is not uncommon for fuel tankers to burst into flames on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. For the last decade photographer Akintunde Akinleye has been capturing the moment firemen turn up:
Fuel tanker explosions are so common in Lagos that local media have been known to report multiple fires in one night.
The state governor Akinwunmi Ambode recently blamed frequent tanker explosions on drivers' carelessness causing crashes. Bad brakes have also been blamed.
The fire service is not well equipped for a city the size of Lagos. There are very few fire-fighting vehicles and they have been known to go to the scene of a fire without water.
The fire service in Lagos is not a particularly big one - there are 13 fire stations in a city of about 20 million people. Its equipment is also not designed to cope with Lagos' many high-rise buildings.
However, it is the best-equipped service in Nigeria, though the firemen risk their lives for poor pay. Fire is not the only risk - they have been attacked by angry people who accuse them of arriving late.
Firemen are also vulnerable to attacks from people who do not want them to put out fires so they can use the confusion of a fire outbreak to loot.
Reports after this fire in 2012 said people tried to loot this wreckage of a plane. It had fallen from the sky and burst into flames when it hit a printing works.
- Published11 May 2015
