Gas cylinders explode in house as family has narrow escape

Kolkata: All members of a family at Liluah in Howrah had a narrow escape as cooking gas cylinders exploded in the house soon after they set out to visit a Durga Puja mandap

on Monday.

A fire broke out in the house with the explosion which threatened to spread to the adjacent buildings.

Three fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. The firefighters took around one-and-a-half-hour to extinguish the flames.

Joy Gupta is the tenant who stays with his family in the house owned by Ratan Banik. Joy had been staying there for a long time. Local people told the police that they heard a loud sound of explosion and ran to the spot to find that the house was on fire. Local people initiated the work to douse the flames and later firefighters joined them. Preliminary investigation revealed that there were two cooking gas cylinders that were kept side by side inside the kitchen. Kanta Gupta, Joy's wife, said: "We had been asking the landlord to undertake repairing of the electric wearing. But our requests fell on deaf ear." She alleged that the incident was the outcome of the lackadaisical attitude of the landlord in undertaking the repairing work.

She further told the police that several documents including photo identity cards and some cash were gutted in the fire. She said: "We had just left the house around 15 to 20 minutes ahead of the incident. We would have died if we had stayed in the house."

The police are trying to ascertain the exact reason behind the fire. They are trying to find out whether the incident took place accidentally or if there is any foul play behind it. The police spoke to the

local people.