According to a security officer, the fire that started late on Sunday in Rivers State was started by a homemade refinery igniting a nearby oil reservoir, leaving victims with severe burns.

Given the estimated number of individuals there at the time, locals worry that the death toll could rise.

Olufemi Ayodele, a spokesman for the nearby Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, reported that “25 injured people were rescued.”

An activist from the area named Chima Avadi claims that the workers at the scene were processing oil that had been removed from a broken pipe. “They would take the scoop from the location where they damaged the pipe to the area where they were cooking. Fire arrived there in that way, according to Avadi.

In the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta region, where the majority of the country’s oil installations are targeted by persistent oil theft, explosions at locally owned refineries are frequent.

Nigeria officially lost at least $3 billion worth of crude oil to theft between January 2021 and February 2022 in addition to the numerous lives lost.

Criminals frequently establish refineries in distant locations to get around regulators. The workers at these establishments rarely follow safety procedures, which frequently results in fires, like the one that killed over 100 people in Imo state last year.

“The money they make from there in one or two days is more than a civil servant can make in a year,” said Fyneface Dumnamene, executive director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre.

His group has pushed for changes to the environment and a stop to illicit activity. However, Dumnamene noted that as Nigeria’s economic situation worsens, “people are looking for opportunities to make ends meet.”

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission reported last year that in addition to the numerous lives lost, Nigeria lost at least $3 billion worth of crude oil to theft between January 2021 and February 2022.