Three persons were killed and one injured after a fuel tanker hit an electricity pole and burst into flames on Satana Pimpalner Road in Dhule district on Monday night.
Three persons were killed and one injured after a fuel tanker hit an electricity pole and burst into flames on Satana Pimpalner Road in Dhule district on Monday night.
The tanker, carrying LPG gas of IOCL company, was going from Sakri to Satana. As it was crossing the narrow bridge near Pimpalner around 9pm, it hit the pole, exploded and fell into the Panzara river below.
“The impact of the explosion was so huge that five shops in a two-storey building caught fire, a truck moving behind the tanker was charred and a Maruti 800 on the opposite side also was engulfed in flames,” said Pradeep Deshpande, Dhule district superintendent.
“Two autorickshaws fell into the river along with the tanker. Three bodies have been recovered and an injured woman has been admitted to Dhule civil hospital.”
Fire tenders from Satana, Navapur, Sakri, Dhule and other places were pressed into service. “Fire fighting teams from Panewadi joined the operation,” said Dhule RDC Vivek Gaikwad.
The flames could be seen 20 km away and villagers panicked. The situation was so chaotic that before the fire engines reached the spot, the people got violent and attacked the tehsildar’s vehicle. They also marched to the police station at Pimpalner and pelted stones.
Police were deployed and the situation was brought under control.
According to eye witnesses, there were two blasts. The narrow bridge had a huge volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic at that time of the accident to take part in a procession of Lord Khandoba at Pimpalner village. Also this is the shortest route from Dhule to reach Satana, Nashik and Aurangabad.
With the Panzara river, efforts to pull out the tanker has become difficult.
“We are trying to pull out the tanker and its capsule,” said Deshpande.
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