A Flick of a Lighter Kills Scores of Gas-Looting Iraqis
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Published: August 30, 2006 (from the NYTimes article located here)
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 29 ? At least 67 people, including dozens of looters siphoning gasoline from a government pipeline, were killed in an explosion late Monday night after fuel vapor was accidentally ignited by a cigarette lighter, the Iraqi police and government officials said.
The pipeline explosion appeared to be a result of what one official in Diwaniya called a ?power vacuum? created by a battle there on Monday between the Iraqi Army and heavily armed members of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the radical anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
That battle, which killed at least 20 soldiers and militiamen and 8 civilians, drew away policemen guarding the pipeline that runs through parts of Diwaniya, said First Lt. Qaisar Rasheed of the Diwaniya police. Residents then flocked to the pipeline to illegally tap the gasoline.
Despite Iraq?s huge oil reserves, corruption, mismanagement and the lack of security have created a severe gasoline shortage that has sent prices to $3.20 per gallon and forced drivers to wait in gasoline lines for as long as 24 hours.
Lieutenant Rasheed said dozens of Diwaniya residents punctured the pipeline on Monday night.
?They were filling their jerrycans until one of the looters lit a lighter to smoke his cigarette, and that resulted in the explosion,? he said.
Dr. Hussain al-Janabi, director of Diwaniya hospital, said several bodies had arrived charred or burned beyond recognition. He said by telephone that
witnesses had said that the spark that ignited the blast came from a man who used a lighter to check if his can was full.
Oh those crazy mischievous Iraqis. :D