Three workers at a CNG filling station were killed and four others seriously injured after a cylinder fitted in a truck exploded during refuelling in Outer Delhi's Tikri Kalan on Wednesday afternoon. The blast occurred at a fuel station near Tikri Kalan Metro Station while compressed natural gas was being filled into the truck. Police said all three people who died were employees of the CNG station.
One of the victims was identified as 25-year-old Manish, a resident of Baba Haridas Colony in west Delhi. He was operating the filling equipment when the cylinder exploded and died at the scene. Two other workers, who were initially taken to hospital with injuries, later succumbed during treatment. The four surviving injured persons were in serious condition, according to Outer Delhi Police.
Blast during refuelling
Initial reports from emergency services had put the toll at one dead and several injured. The casualty figures were subsequently revised after two of those admitted to hospital died. The explosion occurred when several people were close to the truck. The impact injured those in the immediate vicinity and also sparked a fire at the filling station, prompting an emergency response from police and fire personnel.
The Delhi Fire Service received information about the incident at around 3.37 pm. Six fire tenders were dispatched to the station as firefighters moved to secure the area and prevent the fire from spreading. The injured were shifted to hospital while police personnel cordoned off the affected portion of the filling station.
Cause yet to be established
Authorities have not yet determined what caused the truck's CNG cylinder to rupture during the filling operation. Investigators are expected to examine the condition of the cylinder and the vehicle's CNG system, along with the circumstances in which the truck was being refuelled. No official finding attributing the accident to a particular defect or lapse had been announced till Wednesday evening.
The incident has again drawn attention to the potentially severe consequences of failures involving high-pressure CNG storage systems. In an earlier investigation into a fatal CNG cylinder explosion at a fuel outlet in Mansa in 2021, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board found that the cylinder involved was spurious, welded and modified rather than an approved seamless CNG cylinder. The accident killed the filling attendant. However, there is currently no evidence that the Tikri Kalan explosion had a similar cause, and investigators are yet to establish what triggered Wednesday's blast.
Second such Delhi incident this year
Wednesday's accident comes months after another CNG cylinder explosion was reported in Delhi. In May, a cylinder exploded during repair work at a godown in Sunder Nagri in northeast Delhi, critically burning three children and a worker. Two of the children later died. Police said the premises was allegedly being used for storing and repairing old CNG cylinders.
A separate incident was reported in the Baba Haridas Nagar area in April, when a truck cylinder exploded while CNG was being filled at a pump. Three filling-station employees and a customer were injured in that accident. The cause of the latest Tikri Kalan explosion remains under investigation, with authorities yet to announce whether any mechanical defect, cylinder failure or violation of safety procedures contributed to the accident.