Image: CHETI PRAXIDES
One person died on Friday after a container full of petrol exploded at the Mokowe jetty.
The incident took place at 12.30pm.
The deceased, Mohamed Farid 16,was a form three student in the town. He is the son of the owner of the container where the fuel was being offloaded.
A faulty generator which was being used to pump the fuel from a lorry into the container is said to have produced sparks that later caused an explosion that killed Farid, who had been holding the fuel pipe.
A 36-year-old man is nursing serious burn injuries at the Lamu King Fahad Hospital.
The container had an equivalent of 500 liters of petrol when it exploded.
Fire fighting vehicles were yet to respond by 2.3Opm.
Mokowe Offloaders Association chairman Athman Yusuf, who witnessed the incident, said,“He (Farid) was inside the container holding onto the pipe as the fuel offloaded together with the injured man. We were unable to do anything as the explosion was abrupt and the fire fierce. Our efforts to put out the fire weren’t fruitful.”
The lorry had was ferrying fuel from Mombasa.
The Mokowe jetty area on Lamu’s mainland has at least four petrol containers.