Surat: LPG cylinders explode in truck, school bus among 4 vehicles gutted
Mangalore Today News Network
Surat, Jan 10, 2020: All the vehicles caught fire and 24 children travelling in the school bus were rescued by villagers who rushed to the spot.
A major fire broke out on a truck loaded with LPG cylinders, leading to over 150 cylinders blasting off in the air and landing on to nearby agricultural fields, a school bus, a truck loaded with sand and an autorickshaw, at Masma village Surat on Thursday morning. All the vehicles caught fire and 24 children travelling in the school bus were rescued by villagers who rushed to the spot, Yahoo reported.
According to fire officials, teams from three fire stations in Adajan area rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control in two hours. Around half of the 330 LPG cylinders on the truck blasted off in the incident that took place around 6.45 am, they said.
Police said the truck (GJ-19 X -6612) loaded with 330 LPG cylinders from a bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) in Hazira was on its way for delivery at Walia taluka in Bharuch district.
Driver of the truck, Abrarul Mohammed Nazim, a native of Uttar Pradesh, noticed a short circuit in the cabin and immediately stopped the vehicle, opposite to Samarth Residency in Masma village on Surat Olpad road. The driver and cleaner alighted and tried to douse the fire but couldn’t manage, and escaped from the spot, abandoning the vehicle. They rushed to Olpad police station and informed about the incident by when the fire caught on to the carrier, triggering the blast of cylinders, said fire department officials.
After the fire broke out on the truck, some of the vehicles on way from Surat to Olpad stopped and tried to reverse but the road had dividers. Cylinders were blasting off and people rushed to safety. Surat Chief fire officer Basant Pareek said, “It took us two hours to get control on the fire and we were successful in saving fifty percent of the LPG bottles. The fire broke out due to the short circuit in the driver’s cabin.”
The bus of Radiant Acadmy, a school in Jehangirpura, was among the vehicles stranded. There was smoke everywhere, and one of the cylinders fell on roof the school bus carrying 24 students. The driver stopped bus and villagers took the students to safety. After sometime, a truck loaded with sand collided with the bus and cylinders fell on it too, triggering a fire. An autorickshaw parked nearby also caught fire, police said.
The Olpad BJP MLA Mukesh Patel rushed to the spot alongwith the villagers of Masma and ensured the situation was under control. “We immediately informed the Radiant Academy school authorities to send another bus to take the children to the school. Some of the parents rushed to the spot and took their children back home,” Mukesh Patel told The Indian Express.
Olpad police inspector A M Sumra said, “It was the truck driver who informed us about the incident. No one was hurt. We took the statements of the truck driver and later allowed him to go. The students travelling in the bus were from Olpad town and neighbouring villages. All of them are safe.” Authorities of the Radiant School authorities did not respond to phone calls.