Oxygen leak triggers ambulance blast in Odisha, roof blown off, patient dies

A patient died, and two other persons sustained critical injuries after an ambulance caught fire outside a government hospital in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Thursday.The blaze occurred due to an oxygen cylinder blast, according to the police.The incident took place when an ambulance arrived at the government hospital to transport a 35-year-old man named Sujosh Barik to a private health facility in Bhubaneswar.A video captured the chaos triggered by the fire. Local residents rushed to the spot and managed to pull the patient out of the burning vehicle. He, however, sustained severe burn injuries and succumbed to them minutes later, police said.A secondary explosion reportedly blew off the roof of the ambulance. Debris from the blast fell on other patients in the vicinity, leaving two people critically injured. Barik, who died in the incident, was suffering from a severe blood infection and was being shifted to a hospital in Bhubaneswar for further treatment.The ambulance had been hired from a private operator, and a case has been registered in connection with the matter.The explosion took place when the driver opened the valve of the oxygen cylinder to provide oxygen to the patient, police said."It is suspected that a sudden leak from the oxygen cylinder triggered the fire," a police official, cited by news agency PTI, said.Fire personnel reached the spot and brought the blaze under control.- Ends(Based on inputs from Ajaya Kumar Nath, with additional inputs from PTI)