Cylinder explosion: Three children with disabilities burnt alive

Victims were sleeping when fire erupted

SIALKOT: At least three physically challenged children have been burnt to death in a cylinder explosion in a shop in Sialkot on Thursday.

A police official said a local trader Malik Muhammad Ilyas had set up a gas re-filling shop in his two-storey house near Daska Road. He added the fire erupted due to leakage of gas from one of the cylinders which were kept in the shop. He said Ilyas was not present at his home when the incident occurred. However, his three physically challenged children  Lubna 32, Shehbaz 22, and Aiman,16, were sleeping in the house when the fire erupted, the official maintained. He said all the three siblings were burnt alive.

Meanwhile, rescuers shifted the bodies to District Headquarter Hospital for legal formalities. A rescue official said three fire engines took part in extinguishing the blaze. He added the shop was completely damaged, while the house incurred partial damage due to the blaze.

Earlier on November 4, two people were killed when a gas cylinder exploded in a factory at Jiabugga, Raiwind. Rescue officials said a fire erupted due to a gas cylinder blast which turned into inferno in no time, engulfing the factory. The gas cylinder exploded with a bang due to leakage, leaving two people, identified as Naveed Ahmad and Naved Abdul Rasheed, hailing from Raiwind and Peshawar, respectively, dead on the spot.

In another incident on September 17, at least three teenage workers were killed and two others sustained burn injuries when a boiler of a factory exploded in Lahore’s Shah Pur Kanjran neighbourhood.

The tragic incident happened when workers were busy in boiling milk in the production unit of ‘Cakes and Bakes’ factory. A cylinder of some 40kilogramme was being used in the factory as a boiler that exploded with a huge blast, also making the roof cave in.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2016.