Jamshedpur, Aug. 4: In a major fire mishap, about 30 thatched houses were gutted after a LPG cylinder leaked razing a slum at Devnagar in Baradwari under Sitaramdera police station area on Friday morning.
The mishap took place when two staff of a local LPG agency was fixing new gas connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to one of the
beneficiaries at Rajendra Ashram in Devnagar at about 11.30 am today.
According to information, two persons, Baidh Nath Mishra (32) and Braj Nayak Pandey (35), both staff of Kanchandeep Gas Agency, sustained partial burn injuries in the incident and have been admitted to the MGM Medical College and Hospital . A doctor who attended the victims said that they are out of danger.
OC, Sitaramdera police station, Rameswar Oraon confirmed about the fire incident that triggered from a leakage from an LPG cylinder and later spread to about 30 thatched houses within minutes.
” We are investigating the incident . We had pressed fire tenders from the Government Fire Station in Golmuri and also from Tata Steel to douse the flame which was brought under control within an hour,” said Oraon. Seven tenders had been pressed into the service from 11.45 am till 1 pm during which the fire was brought under control completely.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner, Amit Kumar, Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer Prabhat Kumar and other administrative officers had reached the spot within half-an-hour of the fire mishap . The fire broke out at the house of one Suraj Kumar, a motor maechanic, in Rajendra Ashram.
A local resident said that the LPG gas agency had provided gas connection to as many as four houses in the Rajendra Ashram today.
” The mishap took place when the two agency staff were fixing the cylinder with the oven at the house of Suraj in the light of a kerosene lamp as there was electricity supply at the slum at that time. There was a leakage in the gas cylinder and suddenly the room was filled with gas and caught fire triggered by the kerosene lamp. The cylinder had later blast,” he said.
Rakesh said the fire was so vast that it spread to the adjoining thatched houses immediately, but the two agency staff, who were inside the house had come out promptly having sustained burns in their hand and legs.
Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer, Prabhat Kumar said that the affected families have been provided with a make-shift camp and also provision of food.