Fire following leak in GAIL pipeline

Panic gripped the residents of Parappana Agrahara after an accidental fire broke out following a leak in a GAIL (Gas Authority of India Ltd.) pipeline on Sunday.

The incident occurred at about 7 p.m. at AECS Layout. There were no casualties or injuries, as the fire broke out in an open area in the locality.

Two fire tenders rushed to the spot to douse the blaze. It took more than an hour to bring the fire under control, according to sources in the Fire and Emergency Services. Sources said around 7 p.m., the residents noticed the fire and raised an alarm. Prashanth, a labourer at a construction site in the locality, alerted the fire control.

The police said the Fire and Emergency Services personnel, along with a team from GAIL, were investigating the cause of the gas leak, while an official from Fire and Emergency Services claimed there were three to four leaks in the same pipeline.

According to senior officials in GAIL, the pipeline was exposed, following some drain work that was taken up nearby. The official said some rag pickers, on Sunday evening, set fire to some waste. “Due to the heat from the fire, the pipeline got damaged and there was a leak, which caught fire. Soon after we heard of the fire and leak, we closed the valves,” the official said and added that repairs on the pipeline had been completed. GAIL would take up an investigation into the incident as well.

Past cases

Over the past six months, GAIL’s city pipeline network has been damaged at least five times by various agencies or private companies while digging roads. The pipelines are laid one metre below the ground.

In February, four children were injured and at least five houses as well as vehicles were damaged following a blast on a site where workers from Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) had allegedly taken up work next to a GAIL pipeline at Muneshwara Layout. An FIR was registered against GAIL and Bescom.

In January, a compound wall and a section of a house caught fire when a group of contract labourers of Bescom allegedly damaged a GAIL pipeline while laying HT cables at AECS Layout in Singasandra. And, in October last, the contractors of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. had twice damaged pipelines in Whitefield.