Three injured after suspected gas cylinder blast in Mumbra building

MUMBRA: Three people, including a 10-year-old boy and woman, suffered injuries after a powerful explosion took place in Mumbra on Saturday morning. The explosion was suspected to be due to a gas cylinder leakage in a residential-cum-commercial building, said the Thane Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC).

The incident took place in Mughal Park society in Chand Nagar area of Mumbra on Saturday around 6.05 am when the residents were asleep. Mughal Park is a ground-plus-four 25-year-old building and its A wing has seven shops on the ground floor and 24 residential tenements.

RDMC officials said they received a call about a gas cylinder blast in a scrap shop. When the team reached the spot along with a fire engine, they found two domestic and two commercial gas cylinders from the shop and a residential tenement.

“Initially, the locals said it was a gas cylinder blast and suspected gas leakage,” said Yasin Tadvi, Thane RDMC chief. “When our team inspected the blast spot, we felt that it might not have been caused by gas leakage, as the explosion was of a very high intensity.” Looking at the impact on adjoining buildings, the RDMC team alerted the police who, in turn, dispatched the bomb detection and disposal squad to the spot. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

RDMC officials said that the injured had been identified as Azhar Shaikh, 40, Arshu Sayyad, 10 and Zeenat Mulani, 50. They were taken to Bilal Hospital nearby, where their treatment is ongoing. “One room, four shops, a car and auto rickshaw and windowpanes of Farida Baug, the adjacent building, were damaged in the explosion,” said an RDMC official. “The building has been sealed after its 76 residents were evacuated and shifted to Shimla Park school in Kausa.”

Harun Dalvi, 45, a resident of a building in the locality, said his two children were woken up by the sound of the blast. “I opened the window and felt that something had exploded,” he said. “I rushed to the spot and learned that a gas cylinder had exploded in a scrap shop. I and others rescued a few people. Later, with the help of the local corporator, we provided tea and breakfast to residents.”

Amrin Shaikh, 22, who lives in the building opposite Mughal Park, told HT, “We were all sleeping when the blast happened. We were woken by the noise and found glass shards in the entire house. The bathroom glass door was shattered. It felt like an earthquake. All eight members of our family, including two children, managed to escape.” Added Parvez, a gym trainer whose gym is located in a nearby building, “It was a high-intensity blast which was heard in a radius of and a half kilometres in areas like Amrut Nagar, Kausa, Kismat Colony and Old Nasheman Colony.”

Thane assistant municipal commissioner Balu Pichad, who rushed to the spot with the engineering and structural audit team, said the wall of the scrap shop was damaged and the pillar of the building suffered minor damage. “We have sealed the building and evacuated the residents,” he said. “The building’s structural audit report will come in four to five days.”

DCP Ganesh Gawade said the bomb detection disposal squad (BDDS) and forensic team were sent to the spot. “Prima facie, we learnt that it is a case of gas cylinder leakage explosion,” he said. “A gas cylinder was being used in the Chinese food stall. The forensics team has collected samples, and the exact cause of the explosion will be known after their report. A case is being registered.”