Eight killed, 11 injured in gas pipeline fire in KP’s Hattar Industrial Estate

HARIPUR: At least eight people, including children, were killed and 11 others were injured after a Sui Northern Gas supply line near a factory burst and caught fire in the Hattar Industrial Estate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur district, officials said.

Dr Munawwar Afridi of the Haripur District Headquarters Hospital, who is also associated with the Rural Health Centre in Kot Najibullah union council, told Dawn that three bodies were taken to the DHQ hospital while five others were brought to the RHC.

Haripur Deputy Commissioner Waseem Ahmed told Dawn that it appeared the deaths were mainly caused by suffocation. He also told the media that the fire spread to three to four nearby houses. The deputy commissioner said the available information suggested that suffocation was the main cause of death in the incident.

Homes located within a radius of 200 kilometres of the factory were affected by the fire.

Pipeline details and casualties

Muhammad Amir, an official of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, told Dawn that the affected pipeline had a diameter of 16 inches.

The incident left 11 people injured, while eight people lost their lives. The dead included children.

Medical officials said the bodies were shifted to two health facilities in the area, with three taken to the district headquarters hospital and five to the rural health centre in Kot Najibullah union council.

Fire spread to nearby homes

Officials said the fire broke out after the gas supply line burst near a factory in the industrial estate. The blaze also engulfed nearby residential structures, with the deputy commissioner saying that three to four houses were caught in the fire.

No cause for the pipeline burst or the subsequent fire was given, and officials said the reason behind the incident was yet to be ascertained.

The Hattar Industrial Estate is located in Haripur district, where emergency and medical teams responded after the fire. Hospital and district administration officials confirmed the death toll and injuries.

The incident involved a Sui Northern Gas supply line, and an SNGPL official identified the damaged line as a 16-inch pipeline.

Authorities were continuing to assess the aftermath of the fire, which affected both the area near the factory and nearby houses.