The ignored warnings moments before the horrific Embakasi blast
Mradi village in Nairobi's Embakasi woke up to the horror of a neighbourhood burnt to ashes and completely different from what it was when the sun went down on Thursday.
A vibrant, low-cost residential area sandwiched between Nyayo Estate and several businesses was reduced to rubble in the area where the gas exploded.
In the morning hours, Vanessa Okeyo, a resident, said she counted several lifeless bodies lying abandoned.
The official death toll at 11.30am on Friday was three dead and nearly 300 injured, some in critical condition.
Others suffered life-threatening injuries and were still incapacitated by the huge overnight explosion.
As dawn gave way to sunrise, the shock of the magnitude of the moment that had plunged the neighbourhood into panic was felt by residents.
Abandoned clothes, wreckage and debris told of the horrific moment.
The extent of the damage was reflected in the burns suffered by people living in nearby flats.
The government spokesman, speaking at 11.30am, described the inferno as disastrous.
A police report on the incident said it happened when a truck loaded with gas exploded, igniting a fire that spread to neighbouring buildings.
“One cylinder hit Oriental Godown and ignited a fire at the premises, which deals with textiles,” the police incident report said, detailing why the fire could have spread faster and more intensely.
Dangerous commercial venture
But how such a dangerous commercial venture was set up in a residential area raises many concerns, with the Energy Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) revealing that the company did not have a licence to set up a gas plant in the area.
Residents had always raised the issue of such a facility in the neighbourhood.
It was a question of when not if.
But had the garage owner heeded the residents' distress call on Thursday night, the incident could have been avoided, witnesses to the deadly gas explosion have told the Nation.
From around 9pm, shopkeepers and businesses in the area called the garage owner to report a hissing noise, which they suspected was gas leaking from one of the trucks parked in the garage.
By 10pm, the pungent smell of the leaking gas had filled the area.
With every tick of the clock, they knew that disaster was at hand.
Desperate calls to the police on 999 went unanswered, witnesses told the Nation.
“They only later called back minutes after the explosion. I told them that the gas had already exploded.”
Exactly when the gas exploded is not known – many think it happened at 11.30pm on Thursday, some think it was just after midnight – but witnesses agree that it felt more like an apocalypse.
First, there was a huge bang, then a huge ball of fire engulfed the area. The fire covered the whole area in what looked like a script borrowed from the apocalypse.
