Gas leak scare at primary school

Around 16 students, seven teachers affected by gas leak from school’s generator.

KARACHI: Six and seven-year-olds getting sleepy in class is not out of the ordinary, but on Thursday when the class teacher too started to feel a little drowsy, the alarm bells went off. Pretty soon everyone in KG-2 of the JQJ School Academy, which is located near the paper market in Mithadar, was coughing and spluttering. Around 16 students, seven teachers and the school headmistress were affected by a gas leak from the school’s generator.

The students included eight-year-old Ayesha Razzaq, seven-year-old Adnan, Ali Raza and Ayesha Asghar, six-year-old Hida and five-and-a-half-year-old Huzaifa. Their class teacher, Madiha, and several other teachers who had rushed into the classroom to help move the children also inhaled a lot of gas.

The shouts and cries from the school brought residents of Mithadar into the building and they helped move the children and teachers outside. Rescue teams were called and the affected were quickly taken to hospitals in ambulances.

Four teachers were taken to Civil Hosptial, Karachi while most of the children were brought to nearby private hospitals. Everyone was discharged after primary care.

CHK MLO Dr Aftab Chanter said that the hospital treated Madiha, Nasima, Ayesha and Sultana and a school maid, Hamida. They were declared out of danger and sent back home after a few hours of observation.

Investigation officer at the Kharadar police station SI Akbar said that the school was run by Jam Nagar Qureshi and had 350 young boys and girls. The gas leak was caused by the school generator, which lies outside the building. In an effort to reduce the noise made by the generator, the school administration had fixed a silencer on the pipe through which the generator releases its gas while it is running. The silencer was directed upwards so that the gas would not pose any threat to nearby people. However, that day the gas leaked from the joint fixture between the pipe and silencer. The nearest classroom was KG-2, which quickly filled up.

According to the sub-inspector, headmistress Huma and teacher Sonia too were among the affected.

A huge crowd of parents was quick to collect at the school and for several minutes, panic set in as the anxious mothers and fathers tried to figure out where their children had been taken. All parents finally made it to the hospital where their children had been taken and soon were able to take their young ones home.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2010.