4 critically burnt in Dhamrai after gas leakage
Staff Correspondent
Four members of a family have been hospitalised with critical burn injuries after gas leakage sparked a blast at an apartment in Dhamrai, Dhaka on Wednesday.
The leakage was likely present in a gas cylinder and not in the household gas pipeline.
The people injured in the rented flat are: Nurul Islam, 55, his wife Sufiya, 50, their daughter and medical student Nisrat Jahan, 22, as well as son and college student Al Hadi Sohag, 18.
All of the injured except the medical student have sustained burn injuries in around 40% of their bodies, a doctor of Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit has said.
Relatives of the injured said Sufiya went to the kitchen in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday to prepare Sehri meals for her family. The entire residence was already filled with flammable gas, and as soon as Sufiya tried to turn on the stove a major explosion occurred, injuring all the four family members and damaging properties worth Tk2 lakh.
A Dhamrai fire station official told the media that it was not immediately clear whether leakage in the gas pipeline or in a gas cylinder caused the explosion. No exploded gas cylinder was found at the apartment, however. The real reason behind the explosion would be learned only after completion of an investigation, the official said.
