SEVENTEEN people burned to death in a fuel pipeline fire in Nigeria. The fire erupted in the fuel pipeline after the victims, who were trying to illegally tap the duct, broke a valve on the pipe, company officials said on Wednesday. Fifteen people died on the spot and two more died later from burns received when the blaze broke out. The pipeline, run by the state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, caught fire just outside Ogwe village in eastern Abia State. This is just the latest in a string of such incidents that occur regularly in the country, where people, often desperately poor, resort to illegally tapping fuel pipelines for fuel to sell to motorists. In October 1998, more than 700 people died in the worst such incident ever to take place in Nigeria when a major pipeline erupted into flames at Jesse, outside Warri in the south of the country.