Five suffer burn injuries while laying power cable in Wari

Five people suffered burn injuries as a fire broke out from a gas pipeline, which was damaged when workers were digging soil to lay an electricity line in Dhaka's Wari area early today.

The injured are: Dhaka Power Distribution Company Engineer Anwar Hossain, worker Sohel, inspector of a developer company Md Mamun, its security guards Helal and Abdur Rashid.

They were rushed to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

The incident took place around 2:15am on Tipu Sultan Road.

The workers of DPDC were digging soil for electric line work for the last two weeks, injured Mamun said. "When the workers started digging near our under-construction building, we were there to make sure that no utility lines of the site were snapped during digging."

During the work, the gas pipeline got damaged causing a leakage. Suddenly, a fire broke out leaving them injured, he said.

Of the injured, Sohel suffered 80 percent burns, Mamun 12 percent, Anwar 22 percent, Helal 10 percent and Rashid had 7 percent burn of his body, sources at the burn institute said.

Dinomoni Shorma, a deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said five firefighting units doused the fire at 5:30am.

"We came to know that the fire originated from gas pipe leak during digging work by DPDC workers," he said.