Journalism of Courage
A four-year-old boy sustained serious burns due to a sudden discharge of electricity after a short circuit in a high voltage transmission cable. The boy was standing on the staircase of a commercial complex at Thergaon when another cable fell on the transmission line and caused the short circuit,police said.
Eyewitnesses at Laxmitara Market near Dange Chowk in Thergaon said a large explosion like sound was heard from the staircase of the building. Piyush Santosh Walunj (4) of Gajanan Colony in Tathawade was injured. He was first rushed to a private hospital in Chinchwad and later shifted to Surya Hospital in Pune. Doctors told police that the boy was out of danger but was kept under observation in the ICU.
Additional Commissioner of Police (North Zone) Sureshkumar Mekhla said,”The control room got a call at 3.21 pm about an explosion like sound. A team from Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) was pressed into action. Primary investigation revealed that the explosion like sound was a sudden discharge of electricity after a short circuit in the 100-KV transmission line. We suspect that the two wires came in contact with each other after another data cable passing over them fell down or momentarily came down. And that resulted into a short circuit.”
Mekhla added they had also spoken to the authorities at the sub-station of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company. They told us that a trip (a process in which the circuit is automatically switched off of excessive flow of electricity) was reported in the sub station. We have also recovered burnt pieces of the cable that is suspected to have caused the accident.”
The impact of the discharge was so high that the marble fitted on the staircase was found broken. Police said Piyush was with his parents who run a laundry shop in the commercial complex. Sources with BDDS confirmed that no chemical was traced at the explosion site.
An eye-witness said,”The boy’s parents were at some distance. As soon as the explosion was heard,there was a panic in the area. But police soon came to the spot and cordoned the area.”
