Illegal refilling of gas cylinders at scrapyard under PMC and police scanner 

The cylinder blast at a scrap shop in the city which claimed the life of one person and left three others injured in Mundhwa has once again put a spotlight on cylinder safety norms be it breaking the discarded cylinders for scrap or illegal tampering that is refilling done by unscrupulous elements. 

At the same, it has put a serious question mark over the functioning of scrapyards without any Standard Operating Process SOPs which can endanger the lives of citizens. As many as six such cylinder blast incidents leading to massive fire incidents were reported during the past year. Following the incident, police commissioner Amitesh Kumar and PMC commissioner Dr Rajendra Bhosale asked for strict action against the illegalities and sought compliance reports from their senior officials looking into the illegalities. 

At the same time, data released by the fire department states that between January and November 2024, as many as 1493 fire incidents had taken place in the city. The fires have led to huge economic losses in residential areas and the number of fire incidents in residential areas has also shown a significant increase. Area residents had drawn attention towards the issues of scrapyard fires from time to time before the PMC administration and police but their pleas have gone. According to the fire department, two fire incidents are reported every month and scrap shops are erected either in open grounds or in temporary tin sheds in slum areas which poses a serious threat to the lives of area residents. 

The Mundhwa compressor blast comes in the backdrop of the Kudalwadi fire incident where more than 100 scrap godowns, mostly illegal, were gutted in a major blaze. According to officials, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) started demolishing illegal scrap yards in the area. 

However, in Pune, Mundhwa, Hadapsar and Kondhwa, Uruli Devachi, Mantarwadi, Phusrsungi and Warje areas in the eastern part of the city have recently seen an uptick in iron scrap breaking business. 

According to the fire department, there are more than a thousand such scrap yards in different corners of Pune which operate from slums, open lands, abandoned plots and open land plots in the city outskirts. 

Pune fire chief Devendra Potphode said, “There are no guidelines for breaking iron objects be it cylinders or compressors of vacuum gas metal products. There are obnoxious gases created due to chemical reactions and friction due to explosions or outbreaks of major fires. We will soon present a report to the PMC commissioner about our observations of the illegal operations inside Scrap Yards and shops. 

The district administration has also directed the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a safety review of LPG gas cylinder storage facilities and ordered them to crack down on those found tampering and refilling from original LPG cylinders.