AT least six persons including four children were killed and 21 others received critical injuries as a gas cylinder, used for inflating balloons, exploded near Monipur School, Road No. 11, Rupnagar Residential area at Mirpur in Dhaka on Wednesday afternoon. The injured were rushed to different nearby hospitals. The gas cylinder exploded when a vendor was inflating balloons, police said. According to eyewitnesses, about 10 to 12 children were seen lying on the ground after the blast. The children gathered there to buy balloon. Police feared the death toll may increase. We have no such words to express our grief for the unfortunate deaths.
Fatal gas cylinder explosions have become frequent in the recent years due to absence of proper supervising of the authorities concerned though innocent people are dying almost every month in different parts of the country. Sometimes it occurs in households, sometimes in vehicles and sometimes on the streets. Three of a family died and three others were injured on their way home from hospital as the gas cylinder of an ambulance exploded in Chattogram’s Anwara upazila on October 19. Three other persons were killed in gas cylinder explosions in two districts — Brahmanbaria and Savar — on October 10. Nine people sustained burn injuries in a gas cylinder explosion at a restaurant-cum-sweetmeat shop in the city’s Lalbagh on February 24.
Main reason behind these accidents is — using substandard and dilapidated cylinders. As per Gas Cylinder Act-1991, re-testing of cylinders is a must in every five years to ascertain the quality. The International Standard Organisation has also made mandatory re-testing of gas cylinders after every five years. What’s miserable is that about 25/30 years old gas cylinders are used almost often in vehicles and domestic purposes in our country. The Department of Explosion under the Ministry of Home is solely responsible to check and monitor the gas cylinders. But it never performed its duty properly. At the same time, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission and Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute, which are also responsible for supervision, have failed to take any action in this regard.
