Gas cylinder blasts

The report about the instant death of 12 people and serious injuries caused to several others from intermittent explosions of gas cylinders in a gas filling shop in Faisalabad the other day, makes an eerie reading. The incident is all the more saddening as it has happened in the midst of over a decade long onslaught of directionless terrorism, with increasing disregard of human life.
Add to this the horrendous dimension of suicide bombing and one is apt to conclude that the Pakistan has been hurtled back into the dark ages, or so it will appear. Of course, the gruesome Faisalabad tragedy does not appear to have anything to do with the menace of terrorism. It could be taken as an accident.
Unfortunately, however, the havoc wrought by the explosions in the three-storey building in front of Nishatabad railway station in a posh populated area can hardly be taken as an accident. Generally speaking, ordinarily an accident is believed to result from something suddenly going wrong, externally or internally, with the built-in preventive measures in a given situation.
As against this, free functioning of gas filling in improvised shops will undoubtedly betray much to the contrary, a glaring lack of the very sense of security so vital to this aspect of the gas filling operations. According to one report the first explosion was caused when an unmindful worker rubbed a match to light a cigarette, thereby triggering more explosions, under the terrible impact of which the three-storey building instantly collapsed.
The report, under reference also had this that the cylinders belonged to an illegal business of supplying ammonia gas to the nearby hospitals. The victims were mostly truck loaders, who were asleep in the upper portion of the building. All this, put together, will point to the grim fact that, not to speak of other sectors of trade and industry, no effective regulatory system worth the name happens to be in place.
It is, however, just another matter that a system may be there in the books, but in so far as the ground realities are concerned the books are of little avail. It will also be noted that the first impression was that the blasts were caused in LPG cylinders, which are being openly traded all over the place, even in wayside small shops.
In fact, it makes no difference whether the cylinders were being refilled with ammonia gas or LPG. One is apt to wonder if the cylinders in use were in conformity with the quality standards. Perhaps, nobody seems really keen to ensure against such catastrophes, thus beckoning the new government to adopt expeditious measures in the desired direction.