Using the road to Zenith College, Seam Oil, an LPG filling station, is opposite the Trade Fair site.

Information gathered by The Finder indicates that the gas filling station has been in operation for over 17 years now.

However, this year, construction works began on the site, which used to be a dumping ground, to house members of The Lord’s Garden Ministry.

Noticing the danger this development poses to lives and property, The Finder contacted the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly to enquire why the church is allowed to build so close to the filling station.

According to the assembly, the request from the paper brought the development to their attention, necessitating a search for the permit.

According to the assembly, the new management discovered that permit was granted The Lord’s Garden Ministry two years ago to build on that piece of land.

According to an official of the assembly, the Municipal Chief Executive has directed the head of works at the assembly to contact the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for information on buffer zones around LPG filling stations.

The official explained that if the information from EPA requires a review of the permit to create space between the filling station and the church under construction, the assembly will invite the church and inform them appropriately.

Recent explosions at LPG filling stations in the country have raised concern about the siting of residential infrastructure close to LPG stations.

According to international standards, a distance of 100 metres must be maintained between gas stations and residential facilities.

The National Petroleum Authority’s regulations stipulate that gas and fuel stations should be sited at a minimum of 30.8 metres or 100ft from residential areas.

Town and Country Planning Department’s zoning guidelines and planning standards dated 2011 states as follows:

Siting of the Plant
The plant should not be located close to or within the proximity of any high tension pylons or cables.

The minimum distance shall be 15 metres.

There shall not be any aerial obstructions at the site.

These obstructions include telecommunication mast, etc., and the minimum distance for such obstructions shall be 10 metres.

The plant shall not be located near sources of ignition, e.g. welding, cutting, grinding, use of impact tools, electrical arcs, hot surfaces, and open flames areas.

A minimum distance from the fence wall shall be 10 metres.

The plant shall not be located near hazardous areas.

Flammable liquids, etc., shall be stored at least 10m from the fence wall.

The plant shall not be fenced with wire mesh of height 2 metres and shall have entrance and exit ways.

The facility shall be free from weeds, open drains, depressions, etc. Weed killers which constitute fire hazard shall not be used to remove weeds at installation point.

Safe distance from building, boundary or fixed source of ignition shall be 15m from the installation of storage tanks at filling plants for both car cylinders and domestic cylinders.

Distance between storage tanks shall conform to the following:
i. Storage tanks up to 20 tonnes – 5m
ii. Storage tanks 20 to 40 tonnes – 7.5m
iii. Storage tanks 40 to 60 tonnes – 10m
iv. Storage tanks over 60 tonnes – 15m

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Source: Finder Newspaper

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The Association said it cannot provide information on when its members are to resume work due to the technical nature of their planned installation assessment.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GmBOBQk6s6d3rnqyJJlu3WUGV7YU8SAX”]Members of the Association have suspended work supposedly for major maintenance works on their stations nationwide.

The Association’s members, some of who shutdown from Wednesday, October 19, has not indicated when it will allow members resume regular operations.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, the spokesperson for the LPG Marketing Companies Association of Ghana, Kwame Owiredu, said, “We put up a technical team and we gave them the mandate to check the integrity of our installations as well as issues associated with delivery so we are hoping that they come out with their result as to what they found. It is a technical issue so we didn’t place timelines, and we are hoping that the technical people will do their jobs as soon as possible so that we get past this whole thing.”

The situation is expected to take a serious toll on consumers who would have to wait for the companies to resume before they can refill their cylinders.

Restaurants, bakeries and other businesses that rely on gas are also likely to be negatively affected by the development.

Some have accused the LPG Marketers of undertaking the move against the government due to the latter’s plans to reintroduce the gas re-circulation program, and also close down high-risk fuel stations.

But Mr.Owiredu told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News that, “we are not undertaking this exercise to fight the government or our way of resenting to whatever directive might have come from the government. We believe that public safety is supreme and important, and as much as we know that those who patronize our gas will face some difficulty in accessing gas, their safety is also very important.”

He noted that, although some gas stations are yet to implement the decision, the Association is optimistic that by noon on Thursday, the companies would have fully complied.

Cylinder re-circulation program

The government’s decision to introduce the cylinder re-circulation program, comes after a gas explosion at Atomic junction in Accra, that killed at least 7 people and injured over 130 others.

Following the incident, President Akufo-Addo as part of a 9-point cabinet decision directed stakeholders to implement the cylinder re-circulation program within a year.

As part of the program, consumers will buy cylinder bottles already filled with gas and will not need to refill themselves at designated stations.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Earlier reports had suggested that there was a gas explosion at a nearby filling station, but checks by Citi News’ Joseph Ackon-Mensah at the fire service revealed that, the fire outbreak was due to the negligence of a resident in a household near the said filling station.

Speaking to Citi News, the firefighter at the site said, “The distress call we received said the First Allied filling station was in flames, so we rushed here. But when we got here, that wasn’t the case. Instead, someone in that nearby house forgot to turn off the gas after using it. That caused the fire.”

Corroborating the fire fighter’s account on the fire outbreak, the resident, who reportedly forgot to turn off the oven, said she “wanted to quickly pick up her phone and return, but ended up staying longer. On her return, the flames were burning “uncontrollably.”

The fire service personnel were however quick in responding to distress calls. Thus, they were able to put out the fire in time.

No casualties were recorded.

There are mounting fears over the siting of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) filling stations in the country, following Saturday’s explosion at the Atomic Junction which claimed seven lives and injured about 132 others.

Concerns have been raised from some sections of the public about the construction of gas and petrol stations in residential areas, with pressure group Occupy Ghana, calling for a temporary ban on on-site dispensing of gas.

The LPG Marketers’ Association has dismissed these worries, stating that their outlets had put in the requisite safety measures in place to ensure that incidents like Saturday’s don’t recur.

“We have, on our own as part of the safety standards created what we call the electric discharge pumps. So at most of our outlets, the Bulk Road Vehicle (BRV) trucks do not discharge gas using their own engines,” he said.

“There are electric discharge pumps where when the BRV comes, the pumps are fitted onto them and the discharge is done. It’s quite unfortunate that our outlet at the explosion site wasn’t using that particular discharge pump at the time of the explosion. On issues of safety, in respect of the discharge of the BRV, we have directed our members to use the electric pump system. If you visit any of our outlets, that’s the system that they are using, most of them are using it,” the Public Relations Officer of the Association, Kwame Owiredu told Citi News.

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By: Marie-Franz Fordjoe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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One of those killed was a girl aged 12, they say.

Witnesses say the explosion was caused by a bomb in a car in the mainly Christian area of Sabon Gari.

The area has previously been targeted by Boko Haram Islamist militants but it is the first attack on Nigeria’s second biggest city for several months.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year but the government has said it has pushed the militants back into their strongholds in the north-eastern Borno state.

This is where they seized more than 200 girls last month, in a case which shocked the world and prompted foreign powers to send military advisors to assist Nigeria’s army tackle the insurgency.

At least 22 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack blamed on Boko Haram at a bus stop in Kano in March last year

The street in Sabon Gari was full of revellers and street hawkers when a car exploded.

The BBC’s Will Ross in Nigeria says that Sunday’s blast was so powerful that all that remains of the car is its engine. The blast could be heard from several miles away.

“At about 22:00 [21:00 GMT], we heard an explosion and immediately mobilised to the scene where we discovered a suicide bomber… Five people, including the bomber, were killed,” Kano Police Commissioner Adelere Shinaba said.

He said that the victims were “three men and a girl of about 12”.

Kano is the largest city in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.

The bars and alcohol-sellers in its Sabon Gari area have been targeted on numerous other occasions.

In January 2012, about 150 people died there in a series of co-ordinated attacks by Boko Haram.

The group is fighting to overthrow the Nigeria government and create an Islamic state.

But it has often attacked Muslims, including preachers who disagree with its interpretation of Islam.

The Nigerian authorities are continuing the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls kidnapped.

The abducted schoolgirls, who include Christians and Muslims, were seized on 14 April.

Boko Haram released a video last week showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners.

African leaders meeting in Paris at the weekend agreed to wage “war” on Boko Haram, pledging to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group.

French President Francois Hollande called Boko Haram a “major threat to West and Central Africa”, and said it had links with al-Qaeda’s North-African arm and “other terrorist organisations”.

The unrest in Nigeria has not just been confined to the north.

Earlier this month a car bomb in the capital Abuja killed at least 19 people and injured 60 more.

The explosion happened close to a bus station where at least 70 people died in a bomb blast on 14 April.

Source: BBC

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