A woman was killed and 13 were injured when a bullet tanker carrying Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) overturned and exploded at Bargi village in Kumta taluk of Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday.
The dead woman was identified as Nagaveni Patagar (84). She suffered serious injuries when the house where she was living was engulfed by the flames. She died on the way to hospital.
Tanker driver Amit Kumar (22) suffered fracture in his legs.
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The injured Jayashri Patagar, Srikant Patagar, Bharat, Dhiraj, Subraya Patagar, Shakila Harikant, Niranjan, Navya, Ganapati Harikant, Prema, Niranjan Harikant, Devu Patagar and Nirmala Patagar have been admitted to a private hospital in Manipal, the police said.
According to sources, the accident occurred at 5.30 a.m. as the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle and it fell into a gorge on National Highway 66. The gas spread immediately, bursting into flames. Nine houses in the vicinity of the accident spot caught fire.
When Jayashri Patagar’s house caught fire, the LPG cylinder inside her house exploded resulting in injuries to five persons. Ravi Naik’s cattle shed was reduced to ashes and a cow died.
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The spreading flames also damaged vehicles, vegetation in the surroundings and caused injuries to several domestic animals. Traffic movement on the national highway was affected for several hours. Fire squads from Kumta helped extinguish the fire.
“I heard an unusual sound and for a moment thought that something like a bomb must have exploded. But within no time the flames entered the house and the cot on which my father was sleeping caught fire. I immediately took him outside and by that time the fire spread to the roof and the house started burning,” said Harishchandra Patagar, a resident.
Another resident Mahadevi Patagar said that she did not know what to do when the flames entered the house. “My son took me outside immediately to see the entire house going up in flames within a few minutes,” she said. The villagers said that they never expected that such a tragedy would ever strike their lives. Everyone was taken aback when they saw the flames engulfing everything — houses, cattle sheds, animals and others in the morning hours. An area of nearly half-a-km around the tanker has been damaged.
Eight critical
Ganesh Prabhu from Manipal reports:
The 13 injured persons were rushed in eight ambulances to the Kasturba Hospital here as it has a Burns Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facility.
M. Dayananda, Medical Superintendent of Kasturba Hospital, said, “Of the 13, eight are critical, while five are stable. Of the injured, five members are from one family, four from another family, two from a third family.”