Accident: Three injured in cylinder blast

A police team arrived and started an investigation but shopkeeper had fled by then.

FAISALABAD: Three people were injured on Wednesday when a fire broke out following a cylinder blast at a shop in Jhang Bazaar. Sohail Warraich was decanting gas into a cylinder at his shop Jawwad Traders at Rehmania Road Harcharn Pura when the cylinder exploded. The fire engulfed the entire shop and three nearby rickshaw shops and two houses on the upper storey of Jawwad Traders.  Ghulam Fareed, 28, Muhammad Usman, 17, and Abdur Razzaq, 27, received serious burns and were taken to a hospital in critical condition.  Khurram Lateef, on duty at the Allied Hospital emergency ward, said they had received burns over 80 to 90 per cent of their bodies. “We are providing them intensive care treatment but their condition is still critical”, he added. Fire fighters from Rescue 1122 arrived at the scene shortly after and after several hours brought the fire under control. A police team also arrived and started an investigation but Warraich had fled by that time and has not been found. Jhang Bazaar SHO said a police team has been constituted to trace Warraich’s whereabouts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.