Four people, including Marathe, were injured as the cooking gas pipeline in her flat burst.
It was around 8.15 am on Tuesday. Suman Marathe, 78, had just returned to her ground-floor flat at Abhijit Co-operative Housing Society in Agar Bazaar, Dadar (West), after being away for two days, celebrating Ganpati with her daughter and son-in-law at their Prabhadevi home. She opened the windows, switched on the fan, and entered the kitchen to make tea. Suddenly, there was an explosion.
Four people, including Marathe, were injured as the cooking gas pipeline in her flat burst. The others were neighbours Radhabai, 65, and Suresh Joijode, 70, and building watchman John D’Souza, 59. “The injured were admitted to Hinduja Hospital,” said sub-inspector Mohan Varhandi of Dadar police station. Marathe sustained 40% dry burn injuries.
Fire brigade personnel and officials of Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL) rushed to the spot. The blast damaged eight vehicles parked in the society compound. Window panes of ground- and first-floor flats in A and B wings of the building were shattered. Furniture and appliances too were damaged.
Vishwas Kanade, 53, Marathe’s son-in-law, who dropped her home in his car, said, “She had come to our place on August 23. When I went back home, one of her neighbours called up to say that an explosion had taken place in her flat.” His mother-in-law, a widow, has been staying alone since 2003.
Reaching the flat with his family, Kanade found it gutted. There were debris and half-burnt clothes all around. The ceiling, too, was badly damaged. Before the neighbours rushed Marathe to hospital, Kanade managed to speak to her. He said she told him that the explosion occurred the moment she turned on the knob of the gas pipeline. Her hair was singed, but there was no external injury. Doctors at Hinduja, however, said they would keep her under observation for 10 days.
An official statement by MGL said preliminary investigations hinted at Marathe not having complied with the user safety norms. It said the original fittings had also been tampered with. “She was allotted a single-burner connection. But we found two more connections inside the flat,” said an MGL source. The additional connections were not sanctioned by MGL and must have been installed by unauthorised technicians, he added.
Chief fire officer P Kargoppikar said, “We can’t say for sure that the flat owner had been negligent. Our investigations are still not over.”
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