Explosion in flat leaves 3 injured

Gas leak overnight caused accident, say bomb detection squad

Gas leak overnight caused accident, say bomb detection squad
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A reported explosion inside a flat in a society at Hadapsar injured three persons, leaving them with severe burns yesterday morning.u00a0

u00a0The incident occurred in a flat owned by Avinash Vairagkar (59) in Amar Chhaya Nagari near Gadital in Hadapsar around 7.30am. Vairagkar's wife, Anuradha (52), has sustained 65 per cent burn injuries while Vairagkar and his son Aditya (14) suffered 25 per cent burns.

The fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot after they got a call at 8 am. They suspect that the blast might have taken place after Anuradha tried to light the gas oven. The impact of the blast was so huge that doors and windows of the flat flew away to a distance, the safety wall of balcony got blown off and even window panes of the neighbouring flats were damaged. All the objects in three rooms of the flat caught fire.

Police Inspector Pandharinath Mandhare of the Hadapsar police station said, "A team of Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) was summoned to confirm the reasons of the fire. They have told us that it was due to the sudden ignition of leaked gas."

Explaining the phenomenon, Chief Fire Officer Prashant Ranapise said, "This is a typical case of explosion of leaked Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The gas must have started leaking sometime during the night. The density of this gas is about two and half times that of air, and thus it tends to settle down. If none of the doors or windows are open, which is generally the case during winter, the gas accumulates along the floor as if in a tank." "People get habituated to the smell and can't sense the leakage. Even a small spark can cause explosion of this gas," he added. Fire officer Shivaji Chavan said, "Many of the objects and appliances have got burnt due to the fire that must have lasted for few seconds."

The injured have been admitted to Noble Hospital.u00a0 Anuradha's conditionu00a0 is critical but the doctors have declared the other two to be out of danger.