By Staff Reporter
FAISALABAD: A gas explosion ripped through a cluster of factories in the Malikpur area on the outskirts of this industrial city early on Friday, killing at least 15 people, injuring more than a dozen others and reducing buildings to rubble, officials said.
The blast occurred shortly after dawn at a glue factory, where a gas leak ignited a fire that quickly spread to three neighbouring factories and seven nearby homes, according to a statement from the office of Faisalabad Commissioner Raja Jahangir Anwar.
Roofs collapsed across the site, trapping workers and residents beneath concrete and twisted metal. Rescue 1122, the provincial emergency service, initially reported 10 dead but revised the toll upward as crews pulled more bodies from the debris. By afternoon, the commissioner’s office confirmed that 15 bodies had been recovered, and the rescue operation was complete, with clearance work continuing under floodlights.
Ten injured people were taken to Allied Hospital; three were treated and discharged. “No boiler was installed in the factory,” the commissioner’s statement emphasised, correcting earlier reports from Rescue 1122 that had attributed the explosion to a boiler burst. Instead, officials said, accumulated gas triggered the blast and subsequent inferno.
Commissioner Anwar said a five-member inquiry committee had been formed to investigate the cause and fix responsibility. “We share the grief of the heirs of those killed in this unfortunate accident,” he said in the statement.
The emergency control room received the first call at 5:28 am More than 20 ambulances, fire tenders and heavy machinery were dispatched under the supervision of the district emergency officer. Videos released by Rescue 1122 showed rescuers in orange jumpsuits crawling over mounds of broken concrete, prying slabs apart with hydraulic cutters and carrying stretchers through clouds of dust.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz expressed profound grief over the loss of lives and directed the commissioner to submit a detailed report. Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr. Usman Anwar ordered police to provide full support to rescue teams and ensure ambulances faced no traffic obstructions.
Labor leaders condemned the incident as the latest proof of lethal working conditions in Punjab’s factories. “Factories have turned into death traps for labourers and industrialists are doling out death certificates,” Nasir Mansoor, secretary general of the National Trade Union Federation, said in a statement. He accused successive governments and the labor department of “criminal negligence” and held the Punjab government “directly responsible” for the workers’ deaths.
The federation demanded Rs3 million in compensation for each deceased worker’s family and free medical treatment for the injured. Friday’s explosion was the second serious industrial accident in Faisalabad in less than two years. In April 2024, a steam boiler explosion at a textile mill injured 12 workers and caused part of the building to collapse.
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