Mehmoodabad Parsi Colony: Three tank cleaners gassed to death
Three labourers died after inhaling poisonous gas in an underground tank.
KARACHI:
Three labourers died after inhaling poisonous gas in an underground tank in Mehmoodabad Parsi Colony on Wednesday.
The victims - 17-year-old Amir, son of Patras, 24-year-old Akhtar and 30-year-old Zafar, son of Sadiq - went inside the 40-foot-deep tank to clean it. As soon as they entered the tank, they were overwhelmed by the poisonous gases and fell unconscious one after the other.
The residents of Parsi Colony panicked when the three men did not come out and called rescue services, who struggled to retrieve the bodies for several hours. According to one staffer, the tank was at least 40 feet deep and had an extremely narrow entrance. “We faced a lot of difficulty trying to enter the tank with our oxygen tanks,” he said.
The fire brigade chief said that they faced additional problems because the water level inside the tank was at least 20 feet. Once the rescue workers managed to get inside, they tied the bodies of two of the victims with a rope and pulled them out.
The third body was harder to locate and the officials had feared that if they did not succeed they may have to seek help from the navy. A fire department official said that the third body had gone deep inside the tank.
The officials were also surprised to find out that there was another tank inside the big tank. Once the third body was found, it was also sent to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the doctors confirmed the deaths of all the victims. The police handed over the bodies to the families after legal formalities.
DSP Mehmoodabad said that this house was sold by its owner around five years ago. A new family was moving into the house and that is why the tank was opened for cleaning, he explained.
Additional input by Wasiq Muhammad
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2011.
Three labourers died after inhaling poisonous gas in an underground tank in Mehmoodabad Parsi Colony on Wednesday.
The victims - 17-year-old Amir, son of Patras, 24-year-old Akhtar and 30-year-old Zafar, son of Sadiq - went inside the 40-foot-deep tank to clean it. As soon as they entered the tank, they were overwhelmed by the poisonous gases and fell unconscious one after the other.
The residents of Parsi Colony panicked when the three men did not come out and called rescue services, who struggled to retrieve the bodies for several hours. According to one staffer, the tank was at least 40 feet deep and had an extremely narrow entrance. “We faced a lot of difficulty trying to enter the tank with our oxygen tanks,” he said.
The fire brigade chief said that they faced additional problems because the water level inside the tank was at least 20 feet. Once the rescue workers managed to get inside, they tied the bodies of two of the victims with a rope and pulled them out.
The third body was harder to locate and the officials had feared that if they did not succeed they may have to seek help from the navy. A fire department official said that the third body had gone deep inside the tank.
The officials were also surprised to find out that there was another tank inside the big tank. Once the third body was found, it was also sent to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the doctors confirmed the deaths of all the victims. The police handed over the bodies to the families after legal formalities.
DSP Mehmoodabad said that this house was sold by its owner around five years ago. A new family was moving into the house and that is why the tank was opened for cleaning, he explained.
Additional input by Wasiq Muhammad
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2011.