Cigarette May Have Ignited Pipeline, Killing Scores In Kenya

By Mark Memmott

Published September 12, 2011 at 8:35 AM EDT

Horrific news from Kenya this morning:

"A leaking gasoline pipeline in Nairobi exploded on Monday, turning part of a slum into an inferno in which at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 hurt." ( The Associated Press)

And the BBC, which reports the death toll could top 100, says "reports suggest Monday's blast may have been sparked by a cigarette butt being thrown into an open sewer that was filling with fuel."

It appears that hundreds of people had descended on the area in a Nairobi slum to collect fuel that was spilling from a broken tank.

A similar tragedy happened in Nigeria five years ago, when more than 250 people were killed by an explosion that occurred as hundreds tried to collect gasoline from a pipeline that thieves had broken open.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott