Arifur Rahman Rabbi :
Six of a family including children were critically burned in a fire after a gas explosion caused by a gas leakage at a flat in West Masdai area of Narayanganj city on March 9 early hour.
Later, four of the family succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka.
Not only this family but also 20 percent of the fire accidents across the country involve gas leakages causing countless deaths, burn injuries and property
damage. And such fire incidents have been increasing alarmingly in the country.
According to the Fire Service and Civil Defense data, the fire incident through gas leakage is second highest after electrical short circuit. 99,752 fire accidents took place from 2016 to 2020 and off those, 19,848 accidents had occurred from gas leakages.
Fire service data shows that 16,858 fire accidents in 2016, while the figure was 21073 in 2020, which showed increase in fire accidents. Accidents from gas leakage also jumped from 3,449 in 2016 to 4286 in 2020.
Fire service officials said that they investigated many incidents and found that lack of awareness among the people is causing such accidents. They suggested that regular check-ups and monitoring by the authorities concerned would help to avoid such disasters.
FSCD DG Brigadier General Sazzad Housain told The New Nation yesterday that there are illegal gas connections which have the potential to cause devastating accidents.
On the other hand, many of the gas supply pipelines are 30-35 years old showing leakages at different points. These are also causing fire accidents. These lines are hardly maintained and monitored, he said.
But all the above, people need to aware to avoid such incident, he further said.
On March 13, three members of the same family were injured in a gas explosion in Kashimpur Bhuiyapara area of Gazipur.
Earlier, 27 people, including the imam had died in a deadly blast at a mosque in Narayanganj in September last year. Later, the Investigators from the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited found two leakages on the gas pipeline and said that it caused the Narayanganj mosque explosion.
In June, 2020, five months after son’s death, Journalist Moazzem Hossain Nannu died in similar gas explosion incident in his house located at Aftabnagar in the capital. The family claimed that time they got small of gas most of the time.
Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery is now treating the most number of burn victims from across the country.
Dr Samanta Lal Sen, Coordinator of the burn Institute told The New Nation that they received around 15,000 to 20,000 burn patients in a year. Among them, most of the victims of stove and gas leakage causing deaths.
