The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Tanker gas leak being contained

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Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tanker gas leak being contained

Karthik Madhavan

Five Roads area wears deserted look

DHARAPURAM: Five Roads in the town wore a deserted look, after a lorry carrying liquefied petroleum gas got involved in an accident on Tuesday afternoon.

Shopkeepers downed shutters, residents fled houses, petrol pumps stopped fuel supplies, homemakers did not turn on LPG cylinders and TNEB cut power supply.

Dharapuram police had cordoned off the area, keeping away people more than 100 metres from the site, where the lorry lay on its side with gas leaking from the damaged portion of the tanker.

The otherwise busy portion of the town, which leads to Palani and Madurai, has been so since Tuesday evening, says the area’s Councillor T. Kamaraj.

Indian Overseas Bank which has a branch right at the accident spot did not open its office for customers on Wednesday.

It has remained closed since morning, the Councillor says. The only people who remain at the spot are Fire and Rescue Services personnel, the police and officials from Bharat Gas.

The officials from the company say they begun the rescue operations since last night after their recovery van arrived.

Using the recovery vehicle, the officers have been pumping water to push the gas up, so that it can be transferred to an empty tanker lorry.

In the operation that was about 12-hour hold on Wednesday afternoon, the officials had successfully transferred about 70 per cent of the 18 tonne gas.

The officials say they hope to complete the operation by Wednesday evening. Additional Divisional Fire Officer, Erode, P. Dhandapani says their vehicles are in place and they have been spraying water as and when required to bring down the temperature at the place where gas leaks.

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