The management of Caritas University, situated in Amorji-Nike community, Enugu state on Wednesday disclosed that the raging fire that surprisingly erupted at the site of a water drilling project of the institution about a month ago went off miraculously.
This was as the Owerri Zonal Coordinator of the Nigerian Petroleum Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Mr. Enorense Amadasu, said the commission had supervised the immediate sealing of the site in accordance with industry standards.
Amadasu said that for now, it is being suspected that shallow gas may have been found at the site, adding that samples have been collected for further investigation to determine the type and volume of hydrocarbon that has been emitted into the environment.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Michael U. Orji, told journalists at a press conference at the University and visit the site of the ‘gas’ fire, that the fire went off on its own after several attempts to put it off using every available scientific method.
Orji said the University authority has resolved to tag the incident as a miraculous feat, adding however that scientists may come up with an explanation which is being awaited.
The site of the ‘’gas’ fire situated within the University community, Prof. Orji said, witnessed sustained gas flaring and emission for over three weeks, adding however that the combined efforts by different agencies to quell the fire did not succeed until the fire went off by itself.
He explained that the sudden fire which erupted was suspected to be methane gas that emanated from a water drilling site at the University, adding that in the course of the drilling of an approved borehole, a pressurized seepage was encountered after about 200 meters thus, the fumes that gushed out of the drilled hole.
According to Orji; “In spite of the high effect of the heat around the perimeters to the site of the burning well, no casualty was recorded throughout the 21 days that the fire raged. The fire started following a decision by the school to sink a borehole to serve our teeming population because we needed more water. We did the survey to have a borehole dug at the site.
“We contracted it out to a company to drill the borehole and on Sunday, May 22, 2022, the company started the drilling but on Tuesday, while they dug to about 200 feet, they had to pull out the pipe because gas had started coming out from the well.
“The drillers were afraid that there might be a fire outbreak as a result of the gas emission so they contacted us and we, in turn, invited the Fire Service who stood on as the drillers pulled out their pipes.
“The next day as we continued to make contact with relevant agencies, fire suddenly erupted from the gas emission. That was when we intensified our calls to the governor, and other relevant agencies to inform them that there was a serious problem at hand.
“They all responded, the governor came visiting with all the relevant agencies and we held a series of meetings on how to put off the fire,” he said.
The DVC of Caritas University further said that the desperate attempt by the various agencies of government and professionals to put off the fire did not yield any result until the fire went off on its own.
In the words of Orji; “A very important point to note is that throughout these 21 days the fire kept burning, there was no causality of any sort as no one was hurt or injured.
“Also when the fire went off, the gas also stopped emitting at the same time,” he said.
Orji also said during a conducted inspection of the ‘gas’ site by the relevant agencies, that the well has gone completely dry as no gas is emitting from it any longer, saying that; ‘these are the issues I must emphasis”.
