By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Three persons, out of the four injured have died due to the LPG cylinder blast that occurred on October 24, the last day of the Durga Puja festival in the city.
The incident took place at Yogamaya Ashram located near Umshyrpi College in Three Pine Colony of Laban and the three deceased have been identified as Renubala Purkayastha, 86, Santona Goswami, 56 and Nirmal Nath, 38.
One Dulan Bhattacharjee, who sustained minor injuries in the mishap, is reportedly out of danger.
The blast occurred when a fire broke out due to a leakage in an LPG cylinder in the house of one of the deceased. The fire broke out around 11:30am on the day of Dussehra from a refilled LPG cylinder which had been installed at the kitchen of one of the deceased.
A close relative of one of the deceased informed that on the day of the incident, Nath took the cylinder under a running tap in order to stop the leakage although he was repeatedly asked by his neighbours not to indulge in such activities as it can turn out to be fatal.
But Nath, who died two days ago in Nemcare Hospital in Guwahati, did not pay any heed to the words of the neighbours resulting in the mishap.
The relative further said that as the cylinder burst, the resultant fire engulfed the surroundings causing burn injury to Renubala and while trying to douse the fire, Santona too suffered burns. Renubala passed away two days after the incident while Santona passed away in Nemcare, Guwahati on Monday.
As per preliminary reports, the spread of fire resulted in partial damage to the rooms close to the veranda and kitchen.
The four victims were immediately admitted in the city based hospitals and separate police cases have also been registered and further investigations are underway.
The incident has raised certain questions regarding safety measures to be adopted in case of LPG leaking. Though there is no proper dissemination of information from the gas agencies and the IOC, it has been observed by many that the gas agencies and IOC from time to time make the public aware as to what precaution should be undertaken when such tragedy occurs.