Chennai: Fireman killed in LPG cylinder blast

Chennai: A fireman was killed while trying to douse a fire in a closed bakery due to an explosion of an LPG cylinder inside the shop within seconds of his opening the shutter in Kodungaiyur on Saturday night.   

The incident took place at around 11.40 pm in which 47 others, including a 10-year-old boy and onlookers, suffered burn injuries of varying degrees. All the injured are being treated in different hospitals.

“It was an unexpected explosion of gas cylinder. S Egaraj was opening the shutter and the cylinder exploded and set off a fireball.

He was seriously injured and later succumbed. Two other fire personnel were also injured in the mishap,” DGP S. George, who heads the fire and rescue services, told reporters later.

Egaraj (50), attached to the Kodungaiyur fire station, had been drawn from the Virudhanagar fire station in southern Tamil Nadu as a measure to increase the strength of the fire fighting force in the city.

 He was opening the shutter when the shop imploded due to a suspected LPG leak.  Forty seven others, including firemen and local residents, suffered burn injuries. Three of them are said to be in a critical condition.

• Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday announced financial relief of Rs 13 lakh to the family of the fireman who died while dousing fire at a bakery. He also offered a job to one of his family members.
•  He also announced a relief of  Rs 50,000 to those grievously injured in the fire accident and Rs 25,000 for those injured in the accident.

‘Onlookers were busy shooting video, taking selfies when blast took place’. 
Fire wreaks havoc among residents.

Cops register negligence case against shop, building owner

Police registered case under IPC section 304 (causing death due to negligence) against the shop owner Anandan, who is also injured and as well Nithyanadan, owner of the building located on Meenambal Salai.

Police said the shop lacked ventilation. With the pressure having built up inside, the cylinder exploded due to availability of additional oxygen as soon as the shutter was opened. Experts also feel that had not the shutter been opened, the fire would have spread to the entire building. It was suspected that a microwave oven, which was left switched on by oversight, reportedly triggered the fire.

Fire control received a call around 11.20 and two fire tenders reached the spot within ten minutes. After dousing the fire outside the shop, the fire fighters smelt a gas leak. In a bid to prevent the fire from spreading to the entire building, the fire and rescue personnel opened the shutter of the bakery when the LPG cylinder exploded, fire service official said.   Senior fire service officials said that they are looking into the files to check if the building was following fire safety norms.  One of the injured, who is being treated at Stanley medical college hospital, told reporters, "I was on my bike and crossing the shop where people had gathered. A hard object hit my face and later I found out it was a piece of the cylinder,"

Egaraj, who was taken to KMC, succumbed to his injures at around 3.30 am in the hospital. Three firemen have been admitted at different private hospitals, two home guard and 37 bystanders suffered burn injuries and are undergoing treatment at different hospitals. Chennai city police commissioner A.K. Viswanathan, conducted inspection of the spot and later visited the injured at Kilpauk Medical college and hospital.