Filling station fire: Seven vehicles burnt to ashes

The fire-brigade put out the fire after a delay of one and a half hour.

ISLAMABAD:

Seven vehicles were reduced to ashes after they caught fire from an oil tanker which had gone up in flames while retiring oil to an underground tank at a PSO filling station near Pirwadhai Bus Stand.

According to rescue officials, the fire engulfed two buses and four cars before it was put out after a struggle of one-and-a-half hour. The officials said the fire erupted due to the alleged negligence of filling station staff. No one was hurt in the incident, the rescue officials said.

According to Pirwadhai SHO Jahangir Bhatti, the fire broke out when the staff of PSO were transferring petrol from the oil tanker to an underground tank through a metal pipe.

The SHO explained that the fire erupted when the metal pipe struck another metal object inside the tank, adding that the fire gripped the oil tanker, buses and cars parked at the filling station.

Meanwhile, an elderly man died after a car (UD-870) driven by Zahid knocked him down on the Islamabad Expressway.

The victim, identified as Sameen Khan, 80, was a resident of Swabi, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Similarly, Abdul Muhammad, 21, a resident of Ghori Garden, died after an unidentified vehicle hit him near Barma Town within the limits of Shahzad Town Police Station. The driver escaped the scene.

Additionally, the identity of a person whose headless body was found from a nullah in Sector G-6/2 on Saturday has not yet been identified, police said. Investigation Officer Muhammad Akbar said the body was so decomposed that it was difficult to ascertain the victim’s identity.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2015.