Cylinder blast leads to building collapse in Delhi’s Nangloi

Police have registered a case of negligent conduct with respect to fire and of negligent conduct causing hurt at Nangloi police station, said police

Nine people, including three children, were injured when a gas cylinder blast triggered the collapse of two adjacent buildings in outer Delhi’s Nangloi in the early hours of Monday, police said.

Rescuers said four victims also suffered burns. (HT Photo)

The injured people belonged to three families, police said. “Six of them are out of danger. Three others are in a relatively serious condition and are being treated at various hospitals,” deputy commissioner of police (outer) Harendra Singh said on Monday evening.

Rescuers said the victims also sustained burn injuries. “Four victims suffered burns up to 40%,” said assistant divisional officer of Jwalapuri fire station Aman Kumar, who supervised the rescue.

Police have registered a case of negligent conduct with respect to fire and of negligent conduct causing hurt at Nangloi police station, said the DCP.

One of the buildings was a two-storey building where seven members of two families lived. The neighbouring building was single-storied, accommodating two members of a third family. “The two buildings were in a very congested neighbourhood,” said Kumar.

Police suspect that a cooking gas cylinder was accidentally left open at night, because of which leaked gas filled the house and a spark in the morning triggered the blast. “The confined nature of the two-storey house increased the impact of the collapse,” Kumar said.

While this building collapsed immediately, the adjacent single-storey building too collapsed due to its impact. “The roof of the two-storey building was made of stone slabs. They collapsed and caused the damage,” said the fire officer.

The call to the fire department was made at 11.30pm on Sunday, a few minutes after the collapse. “Four people from the two buildings had been rescued by locals before we reached. We helped bring out the remaining five who were trapped deeper in the rubble,” said Kumar.

Among the severely injured were two people sleeping on a cot on the ground floor of the two-storey building, said Kumar. “We used a stone cutter to rescue them while ensuring that the calculated pressure we applied did not do them any more harm,” he said, adding that this particular rescue took them about 45 minutes.

The injured included four men, two women, a five-year-old boy, and two girls aged five years and six months, said the DCP, adding that they were all taken to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Mangolpuri. While six of them received relatively minor injuries, the two men trapped on the bed deep under the rubble, and a girl are in serious condition.

While the police did not suspect any foul play in the initial probe, they continued to investigate.