Fire brigade saves the day

Swings into action to avert major fire due to LPG leak as the gas company's emergency team reaches venue 4 hrs late owing to traffic

Swings into action to avert major fire due to LPG leak as the gas company's emergency team reaches venue 4 hrs late owing to traffic

Prompt action by PCMC Fire Brigade and their decision to divert traffic to Pune- Mumbai old highway from Nashik Phata, arrested a potential disaster that could have endangered the lives of residents at Phugewadi.

Arrested development: The gas leakage caused panic and lead to serpentine queues of vehicles at Phugewadi. pics/Atul Marwadi

According to Octori Inspector Santosh Katewal at Phugewadi toll, driver of an LPG tanker informed of a gas leak during wee hours of Tuesday after the vehicle hit a tree. The Bharat Petroleum tanker was followed by another gas tanker and an oil capsule on the road. A single spark in the area could have led to major catastrophe.

Chief Fire Officer Kiran Gawade said, "After we received a call around 3.45 am, our team immediately reached there and alerted the residents against igniting any electrical appliance. By then we had also started spraying water to diffuse LPG vapors. The cause of the leakage was a shredded roto gauge of the tanker after its crash with the tree."

According to the Fire Brigade officials, the emergency team of Bharat Petroleum reached the venue three hours later and that too with basic equipment. They had to purchase the materials to seal the crack in the tanker. M-seal was used to cover the crack, which was later followed by plaster of Paris (POP) after the tanker was transported to a nearby school campus.

Early morning chaos
As the preventive operations were being carried on, there was major traffic congestion on the Nashik Phata, which lasted more than three hours. However, the traffic was normalised by 9.30 am after the LPG tanker was moved to Army Public School's premises.

Katewal informed MiD Day, "The situation was tense and it could have led to major catastrophe
had fire the brigade not arrived on time."