Hyderabad cylinder blasts: Flames started while refilling gas cylinders

Hyderabad: A day after the gas cylinder blast and fire which destroyed 15 huts at Nimboliadda in Kacheguda, police said the fire started when two workers were filling gas cylinders at the illegal gas station.

Police suspect that one of the workers was boiling water on a stove, from which the flames came into contact with the gas.

Though locals started putting out the flames, it spread quickly as many small gas cylinders caught fire. Of the five injured one is critical at the Osmania General Hospital.

The Kacheguda police has booked a case against gas station owner Biju Singh, who had been running the establishment since two years.

“It’s a temporary shed made of tin sheets among huts. It was illegal, and there were no precautionary measures,” Kacheguda inspector A. Lakshminarayana said.

The police has issued an FIR against Biju Singh and has charged him with culpable homicide and provisions of the Explosive Act apart from other IPC sections.

Following the ghastly accident the home minister and the Deputy Chief Minister visited the spot, and pressure mounted on the police for a quick investigation.

The police found that the gas station owner used to buy standard domestic gas cylinders and fill it into smaller cylinders for selling at higher prices.

“The fire started when gas leaked while two workers were filling the small cylinders. They usually pour hot water on the cylinders to speed up the flow of cold gas inside. For this purpose, they were boiling water on a stove and the fire came from that,” said Kacheguda ACP Ranjan Ratan Kumar.

Meanwhile, the grieving family of P. Narender, an 18-year-old polytechnic student, received his body after postmortem at the Osmania General Hospital mortuary.

Narender died when he fell from a temple wall at the time of the second blast.

Narender’s friends said that he ran to the site after he saw flames while he was standing near the hostel.

Narender, a native of Mothkur mandal in Nalgonda district, was staying at the SC hostel at Nimboliadda since one-and-a-half years. His parents P. Kondaiah and P. Chandrakala are farmers, the victim's friends said.

Police said that the people who were killed and injured were curious onlookers standing on the temple wall who were felled by the blast wave.