More than 200 liquefied petroleum (LP) gas cylinders reportedly exploded after the truck carrying them overturned on the Chittagong-Sylhet highway near the Brahmanbaria town bypass in Birasar early on Wednesday, after it toppled onto a private car that had been stuck in a pothole.
Both the truck and the car were completely destroyed in the resulting fire, although no casualties were reported.
Two fire service units, along with police, arrived promptly and managed to bring the blaze under control after an hour-long effort.
Vehicular movement on the highway remained suspended for about two hours.
According to locals, police, and the fire service, the truck had departed from Dhaka’s Shahbagh and was en route to the Madhyapara Border Market in Brahmanbaria town.
Just before reaching its destination, the truck hit a large pothole on the dilapidated stretch of the highway in Birasar, overturned, and crashed into a private car stuck in the same hole.
The impact caused both vehicles to catch fire and the gas cylinders started exploding one after another with deafening blasts. Panic spread across the surrounding area and traffic on both sides of the highway came to a halt as countless vehicles became stranded.
Responding to the incident, police and fire service officials cordoned off the area and worked to extinguish the flames. Traffic remained suspended for two hours before an alternate route through Brahmanbaria town was arranged for vehicles.
Mahbubur Rahman Sakib, a CNG auto-rickshaw driver who witnessed the incident, said he was driving toward Lalpur from Brahmanbaria town when he saw a car stuck in a roadside ditch at Birasar intersection.
“The passengers were trying to push the vehicle out. Suddenly, a gas cylinder truck came from behind and overturned onto the car. The car’s engine caught fire first, followed by the cylinders on the truck. Then one by one, all the cylinders exploded violently. I immediately called the national emergency helpline 999 and alerted police and the fire service,” he said.
Sakib blamed the condition of the road for the accident. “The highway is full of potholes and in a completely unusable state. If the road had been in good condition, this would not have happened.”
Md Al Amin, a local resident, said: “I was asleep when a loud bang woke me up. I came outside and saw the truck overturned.
One after another, the cylinders were exploding. We then informed the police and fire service.”
He also pointed to the poor condition of the highway as the main reason behind the incident and urged the authorities to repair it immediately.
Newton Das, deputy assistant director of the Brahmanbaria fire service, said preliminary investigation suggests the fire may have started from the car’s engine after the collision.
“An investigation is underway. Initial estimates place the damage at around Tk1 crore,” he added.
Mohammad Mozaffar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Brahmanbaria Sadar police station, said police arrived at the scene right after the explosion.
“No casualties were reported. We later redirected small vehicles through Brahmanbaria town as an alternative route,” he said.
