PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Feb) – At least 30 people were feared dead after a gas explosion Friday in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur, officials said.
The fiery blast also injured dozens of people in the village of Lacupayan in Tigbao town where a delivery truck carrying tanks of liquefied petroleum gas had earlier overturned.
Officials said an electrical spark from the engine or exhaust of a passing bus may have triggered a fire from leaked gas tanks that caused the explosion. The bus, which came from nearby town of Buug, was on its way to Pagadian City.
“Initial reports said as many as 30 people had been killed and that there are many people injured from the blast, mostly bus passengers,” Major General Raymundo Ferrer, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said troops were sent to the area to help bring the victims to hospitals in Pagadian City, several miles from Tigbao.
“Military trucks and ambulances are now being used to transport the victims to hospitals. This is a terrible day and we really cannot tell when accidents would occur,” Ferrer said.
He said the explosion occurred at around 10.40 a.m. and that soldiers from a detachment near the village rushed to the area after they heard the powerful blast.
The area had been cordoned off, he said, to allow investigation by authorities. (Mindanao Examiner)
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