Five die in Abbottabad gas heater incident

Heating device blamed for three deaths in Mansehra

MANSEHRA/ ABBOTABAD:

Five members of a family including a man, his wife and three minor daughters died due to gas leakage on the road opposite Ayub Teaching Hospital on Tuesday. Victims were identified as Javed Muhammad , his wife Yasmeen Bibi and their three daughters. According to Rescue 1122 the incident reportedly occurred due to gas leakage in the room of family belonging to Oghi which was residing at street No7 Phul Ghulab Road since long.

A rescuer said that it seemed that the family huddled in a single room with a room heater went to sleep without turning it off. However, the flame died when the gas supply went out. When the supply resumed, the gas did not burn. The family kept inhaling the toxic fumes in their sleep and died.

The locals called Rescue 1122 on smelling gas in the air. The rescures broke in the house and found the family dead in their rooms. In Mansehra, a man his wife and 18-month old child died of asphyxia caused by the same suspect, gas heater. There was no gas outage, but the heater had burnt out all oxygen and the family sank into deathly slumber.

Owais Khan and his wife Misbah and their child were found dead in the morning by other family members.

Another six people had died in Mansehra last week.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2021.