A massive fire engulfed a tea shop in Kerala’s Kozhikode district after a gas cylinder exploded on Friday, July 5. One person has been grievously injured and has been shifted to a private hospital nearby. Due to the quick response of the fire force unit, the fire was controlled and extinguished. 

The cylinder exploded at the tea shop in Muthalakulam around 6 am when there were only two workers in the shop. One person was from the Malappuram district and the other was a migrant worker. While the migrant worker narrowly escaped from the fire, the person from Malappuram sustained severe burn injuries. According to reports he is currently under treatment at MIMS hospital in Kozhikode and he is in critical condition with a 40% burn. 

Reports state the shop had more gas cylinders than allowed and did not have any emergency exits other than the entrance. It also said that the fire had spread to nearby shops.

One fire unit from the Kozhikode Beach Fire Station and two units from the Meenchantha Fire Station reached the site and prevented the fire from vastly breaking out and causing more damage. While speaking to the media, the fire force officer said, they received a phone call around 6.45 and they immediately reached the site. “The LPG cylinder was already blasted before we reached there and it caused a huge damage in the shop and some of the nearby shops,” he said. He also added that around eight gas cylinders were there in the shop when they reached there.