Andhra explosion which killed 4 was caused by illegally stored gelatin sticks, Police say

The gelatin sticks exploded due to a stove fire which killed four people and injured 29, the Police said.

Kammalavaandla Palli: A massive blast in Andhra Pradesh's Sri Sathyasai district on Wednesday that killed four people was the result of 150 gelatin sticks exploding due to a gas stove fire, a police official said on Thursday.

Besides the four deaths, 29 others were injured. Two houses collapsed completely while four were partially damaged due to the impact of the blast.

Sri Sathyasai district superintendent of police S Satish said the freak gas stove accident while preparing tea by a person identified as Venkanna (55) in a two-room house led to the intense explosion.

"Venkanna was making tea on the gas stove when the tube linking the stove and the cylinder got disconnected. It disconnected from the stove side and gas started to leak," Satish told PTI, describing how the fire started, which eventually aggravated into high heat and pressure, leading to the ultimate explosions of the gelatin sticks one by one.

Though Venkanna tried to control the gas leak and attempted to reconnect the tube, he failed and even got injured in that attempt, prompting him and his six other family members to flee the spot, the SP added.

They failed to raise an alarm over the presence of the gelatin sticks stored in a pink box, police said.

Though the seven-member family, which also included two minor grandchildren, managed to escape, about 50 onlookers and neighbours, who rushed to douse the flames were caught in the explosion, they said.

According to police, Venkanna, who migrated from neighbouring Telangana about a decade ago, ekes out a living by blasting boulders and rocks with a drilling machine connected to a rig vehicle (tractor), and in that process uses gelatin sticks to break rocks.

Satish observed that workers like Venkanna do not have access to gelatin sticks, which are generally provided to him on cost basis by the contractors who engage them in work for road projects, and clearing agricultural fields of boulders.

In that process, he said Venkanna had started saving leftover gelatin sticks, about 10 to 15 at a time, following the completion of a work order, enabling him to illegally stockpile about 150 over the past eight to nine months.

The SP observed that a box of 200 gelatin sticks costs about Rs 3,000 and at most, Venkanna could have saved only Rs 2,800 by storing those 150 gelatin sticks.

Satish said contractors holding licenses who undertake works such as highway projects and others procure these highly explosive gelatin sticks and sell them to workers for blasting rocks and breaking boulders.

Further, he noted that Venkanna, who is not educated, was oblivious to the lethal threat posed by the gelatin sticks, and was convinced of the wrong notion that they could only be triggered by a fuse and a dynamo whereas heat and pressure played a role in the instant house blast.

"So high heat and high internal pressure led to the gelatin sticks exploding. He (Venkanna) didn't think about the gelatin sticks but the fear of the cylinder exploding made them flee," said Satish.

Following the incident, police also found two blackened and completely damaged cylinders.

Meanwhile, police booked a case under BNS and the Explosive Substances Act.