From the intro to a story in
The NY Times:
MOMBASA, Kenya — The death toll rose to more than 100 people after an overturned gasoline tanker exploded on a Kenyan highway as looters tried to scoop up the spilled fuel, officials said Sunday.
The explosion, on Saturday night, was the second deadly inferno in Kenya within a week, after more than two dozen people died in a supermarket blaze on Wednesday. The high death tolls seem to have been exacerbated by a mix of crime, poverty and questionable law enforcement, and the lackluster response to both emergencies is sure to add to the growing resentment toward the Kenyan government.
According to Kenyan officials, a tanker carrying high-grade gasoline overturned around 7 p.m. on Saturday, near the town of Molo, in the Rift Valley.
As the gas began to gush out, word began to spread. Witnesses said villagers swarmed the downed truck, siphoning fuel into plastic jerrycans. Young men on motorcycles raced in from miles away. A handful of Kenyan police officers tried to drive them off, according to Kenyan officials, but the looters fought back. Witnesses said that one vindictive looter whom officers tried to push away lit a match and threw it into a pool of gasoline.
The explosion sent bodies flying into the woods, and it could be heard for miles. The Kenya Red Cross said Sunday afternoon that at least 113 people had been killed and another 178 severely burned. Several children with charred and blistered faces were airlifted by the Kenyan military to burn centers around the country.
After the fire, government officials picked through the charred wreckage and lamented the culture of looting.
From the intro to a story in The NY Times: