Teenager dies, 3 critical in gas leak explosion in City

A 14-year-old teenager was killed and three others suffered grievious injuries due to an explosion following gas leak at an apartment building on Kadri Rock road on Friday.

According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Bharati (14), who died on the spot.
Her parents Shivananda (35) and Bhagya (30) and brother Anjaneya (13) have suffered serious burn and other injuries in the blast and have been hospitalised.

Hailing from Hanagal in Haveri, Shivanand has been serving as a security guard in the apartment building. The deceased Bharathi is eighth standard student of Bejai Church School. Her brother is studying in seventh standard.

The family was staying in an extended part of the building attached to the main apartment.

Shivanand was sleeping outside the house in the ground floor of the apartment. He sensed the foul smell and informed his wife on gas leakage. His wife had switched off the regulator and Shivanand switched on the light, which is said to be the reason for explosion, fire department personnel said.

The Fire personnel clarified that gas cylinder had not exploded. “The family had received the LPG cylinder on March 28. Owing to lack of ventilator, the gas vapour had filled the room and the spark ignited the fire,” said the police.

The apartment building is about 25 years old. The three storyed building including ground floor has eight houses. There are five families residing in five houses. “I was praying at 4.22 am when I heard a loud sound and my window glasses had damaged fully. The latches of the doors fell,” said first floor resident Subeena. There was no one in another house situated on the first floor.

The police have registered complaint against apartment maitenance committee.

The impact of the blast was such that the whole room was in a mess with  tiles coming out of the floor. Almost all the glass panes in the apartment windows were shattered. The asbestos sheet of the watchman shed had flown to 50 meter away from the spot. The TV set in the house had remained undamaged. The wooden door of the house in the first floor has been damaged fully.

A resident whose house was about 200 metres away from the spot said that his apartment also experienced tremors due to the blast and some window panes of nearby buildings have been damaged.

The fire department personnel rushed to the spot to douse the flames. All equipment inside the shed were destroyed in the mishap. A large number of people had gathered at the site after hearing the sound.

“The owners in the apartment had cars. However, they did not cooperate in shifting the injured to the hospital. The injured were shifted to hospital only after 108 ambulance reached the spot,” said an eye witness.