LPG woes: Cylinder-to-cylinder filling causes explosion

Huge explosion rocked the entire sector after an LPG cylinder shop caught fire following the explosion.

ISLAMABAD:

What was feared to be a terrorist attack on Wednesday turned out to be a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder explosion at a shop in Sector G-12.

A huge explosion rocked the entire sector after an LPG cylinder shop located at Mirza Chowk in Sector G-12 caught fire following the explosion, said a Ramna police official.”No one suffered injuries,” he added.

The police suspect that the shop’s owner, Majid Abdur Rehman, was transferring gas from one cylinder to another, causing the shop to fill with gas. Some illegally stored cylinders at the shop were also believed to be leaking.

A short circuit triggered the explosion when the leaking gas caught fire and the cylinders exploded with a bang, said Investigation Officer ASI Shabbir Ahmed.

Rehman, the owner, ran out of the shop to save his life after the short circuit occurred, police said. The police arrived at the scene and called in the fire brigade, which put out the fire after an hour.

The Ramna police registered a case against Rehman for illegally storing locally manufactured LPG cylinders and for cylinder-to-cylinder filing, which is prohibited under the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2012.