At least five young day labourers sustained burn injuries in an explosion of gas pipeline that caught fire due to gas leakage in the capital’s Progoti Sarani under Bhatara police station in the wee hours of yesterday.
Meanwhile, another fire broke out in an apartment near the Nazrul Institute on road 28 in the capital’s Dhanmondi in the afternoon. However, no casualty was reported.
The injured in the gas pipeline explosion were Md Shahjalal, 20, and Yunus Hossain, 22, of Rajoir upazila in Madaripur, Sohel Rana, 22, of Kotiadi in Kishoreganj, Md Russell, 18, of Sherpur and Habibur Rahman, 22, of Bhola – all admitted to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Of them, Shahjalal sustained 20% burns while Yunus, Rana and Russell 10% each and Habib 14%.
The incident took place yesterday at a mess located on the 1st floor of a six-storey building at Nayanagar adjacent to the Coca Cola intersection near Progoti Sarani under Bhatara police station.
Of the victims, Russell said: “As soon as I lit a matchstick, the entire house caught fire on the spur of the moment. Immediately we jumped off the window for safety, and thus we saved ourselves.”
Mohammad Ali, officer-in-charge of the police station, said the injured were first taken to Badda General Hospital and later shifted to DMCH.
Besides, the fire at the drawing room of the Dhanmondi apartment originated from a short circuit around 4pm and two units of firefighters doused it after a frantic effort of half an hour, said Alamgir Hossain of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.