Four injured, bikes gutted as PMT explodes

An explosion in a 200KV pole mounted transformer in Hyderabad late on Friday night injured four men, burning half a dozen motorbikes and perishing dozens of chickens. The incident happened in Khai Road locality in the city's downtown. Luckily the market was closed at the time of the blast which apparently prevented major disaster. One of the injured sustained around 70% burns and the other 60%. All of them were shifted to Liaquat University Hospital from where the critical patient was shifted to Karachi. According to the spokesman of Rescue 1122 Dilbar Halepoto, the PMT's oil spilled with the explosion and burnt people, vehicles, chickens and even the road in the pole's close proximity. Three transformers of 200KV were mounted on the poles, clubbed together. The fire fighters of Rescue 1122 extinguished the fire. Rizwan, a local resident who sustained deep bruises on his face, claimed that his house was about to catch fire. However, he added, he and his family did the firefighting and prevented it from gutting their house. The local residents told the media that the defective PMT was repaired thrice but it still exploded. Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's MPA advocate Rashid Khan, who visited the site soon after the blast, asked the residents why they did not inform him about repeated repairs of the PMT. He referred to the statement of the Chief Executive Officer of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) Faizullah Dahiri, that defective transformers should not be repaired but replaced with the new ones. The MPA assured the residents about pursuing a case for their compensation with the provincial government.