RAWALPINDI: A man was burnt alive and his co-worker injured in a fire at a gas filling station on Adiala Road on Sunday.

One of the employees of Diva CNG station, 25-year-old Mohammad Waqas, died after being trapped in a fire that started after a gas cylinder exploded, the police investigating officer said.

The officer added that another employee of the gas station, 60-year-old Gulzar Khan was injured and was taken to the hospital, with burns to most of his body.

The accident happened when Mohammad Waqas and Gulzar Khan had walked into the gas compressor room to switch on the gas valves at about 10am on Sunday.

“A spark was generated when the switch in the room was turned on, which caused one of the gas cylinders to explode and the fire that started trapped both the men inside,” said Naveed Hussein Shah, who is the son-in-law of Gulzar Khan and was present when the incident happened.

Mr Shah said Mohammad Waqas was close to the cylinder which exploded and that he died on the spot. Even the fire extinguishers in the station could not control the fire, he added.

Talking about his father-in-law, Mr Shah said Gulzar Khan had run to his house, which is just across the road from the station, while he was still on fire.

“Till he had gone home and changed, he had sustained severe burn injuries,” he said.

A large number of people gathered at the station when they heard of the fire. The injured man was moved to the hospital with burns to 100pc of his body and doctors say he is in critical condition.

Gulzar has been working at the CNG station for the last 12 years as a generator operator and belongs to Azad Kashmir.

Mohammad Waqas’ body was handed over to his family after legal formalities were completed.

Police investigating officer Sub-Inspector Raja Arshad Ahmed told Dawn that preliminary investigation suggest that the fire was started due to an electric short circuit though Rescue 1122 said the fire was caused due to a “boiler blast”.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2016