One in five fire accidents linked to gas leakage

One-fifth of the fire accidents across the country involve gas leakages causing countless deaths, burn injuries and property damages.

Among the reasons behind fire accidents, gas pipeline leakage is second to electrical short circuit, according to fire service data.

The authorities said that fire accidents have been increasing alarmingly in the country in the last few years as more and more gas pipeline and cylinder leakages are being reported.

Fire service data show that they reported 16,858 fire accidents in 2016, while the figure was 24,074 in 2019, which showed almost 50 per cent increase in fire accidents.

Accidents from gas leakages also jumped from 3,447 in 2016 to 4,428 in 2019, the data show.

Fire service director general Brigadier General Sazzad Hossain told New Age that there are illegal gas connections which have the potential to cause devastating accidents.

‘Additionally, many of the gas supply pipelines of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company are 50-60 years old showing leakages at different points. These lines are hardly maintained and monitored. These are also causing fire accidents,’ said Sazzad.

Tens of thousands of illegal gas connections dot the country’s gas distribution network leaving thousands of spots highly vulnerable to gas leakage and thus to explosions the like of which caused the recent Narayanganj mosque tragedy.

Illegal gas connections and gas leakage-related accident once again came under the scanner after recent accident in a Narayanganj mosque, which claimed at least 27 lives and left nine more in critical conditions.

Titas suspended four officers and four other staff members on charge of negligence in relation to the explosion.

The suspension comes amid allegations that the explosion was caused by gas leakage while some of Titas staff members refused to repair the pipeline without bribe.

According to statistics of the fire service, 96,617 fire accidents took place from 2015 to 2019 and off those, 18,826 accidents occurred from gas leakages.

In late July Three of a family — a father and his two children — died from burn injuries they sustained from a gas pipeline explosion at Bangshal in the capital.

The police said that gas line works had been going on for several days in front of the house and the explosion occurred either due to over-pressure of gas or when one of the family members tried to torch a stove.

The ground floor’s wall of the two-storey building collapsed after the explosion. The wall fell on a child leaving him dead on the spot and two other died while undergoing treatment at hospital.

In another gruesome accident, police recovered five charred bodies after a fire incident in a two-storey wooden house in Moulvibazar town in late January.

Later, fire service found that the fire had originated from a gas pipeline leakage at the building’s ground floor that houses a footwear outlet.

Senior journalist Moazzem Hossain Nannu died from burns received from a reported fire caused by gas line leakages in mid-June in a house at Aftabnagar of the capital.

Five months after, Swapnil Ahmed Piash died after a fire broke out in the same room of the Aftabnagar house due to accumulated gas inside.

Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery is now treating the most number of burn victims from across the country.

The institute director Abul Kalam said that on an average they treat around 20,000 burn victims a year and among the them, most are victims of gas leakage and kitchen fire.

He said that they ran a study in 2018 and it found that around eight lakh people undergo treatment with burn wounds in a year with around half of them suffering injuries in gas leakage and kitchen fire.

Fire DG said that sufficient digital mapping of gas connections are not available.

Besides, unplanned and uncoordinated excavation is also leaving its wake leakages, increasing the danger of gas pipeline leakage-related accidents.

Fire service director for operation Lt Colonel Zillur Rahman said that they investigated many incidents and found that lack of awareness among people are also causing such accidents.

He suggested that regular check-ups and monitoring from concerned authorities would help avoid such disasters.

‘There are places where plastic pipes have been used to illegally connect the households to the gas distribution networks, often fitted overhead using bamboo poles,’ energy and mineral resources division senior secretary Anisur Rahman recently told New Age.

He said that there may be 2,00,000 illegal gas connections in areas covered by Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution

Company Limited, which is responsible for distributing piped gas to about 65 per cent of total 44 lakh consumers.

‘Sadly we only talk about it when we come across a tragedy,’ added Anis.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net