Smoking hazard: Man dies in cigarette-caused explosion

KARACHI: Smoking kills but not always in the most obvious ways. Smokers should never light cigarettes near petrol; the results can be fatal, as was experienced by Nizamuddin on Friday. A father of three sons and a resident of the Rufi Heaven Apartments, the 60-year-old man went to his bathroom, where gases and fumes had accumulated due to petrol being stored there, and lit a cigarette.  The resulting explosion burnt Nizamuddin to death. Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town SHO Farooq Sanjrani said that the sound of the explosion was heard in surrounding areas. "The bathroom was damaged and the walls of one room were blackened," he explained. "The fire trucks came and put the fire out but Nizamuddin had already died," he lamented. No one else was injured in the explosion.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2016.