LPG blast rocks QC laundry shop

An explosion rocked a laundry shop on Kamias Road in Quezon City yesterday morning, injuring one of its employees.

But the Quezon City Police District was quick to rule out explosives, pointing to a leak in one of the pipes of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for the BG Laundry Shop’s dryer.

“There was accumulation of fumes from the leaking LPG pipe when it was not used during the holidays,” said Inspector Arnulfo Franco, chief of the QCPD bomb squad.

Franco said victim Angel Andilap had already smelled the fumes when she entered the shop. Andilap, however, ignored it and still proceeded with her work.

The explosion happened at around 8:30 a.m. when Andilap plugged in the dryer.

Franco told The STAR that the cost of damage at the BG Laundry Shop is less than P50,000, with the destruction of the shop’s glass window, glass door, ceiling and walls.

The broken pieces of glass from the shattered door and window were thrown on to the street.

“That’s a normal thing because the fumes were enclosed for a long time and these really had a pushing effect during the explosion,” Franco said.

Since it was a gas explosion, Franco said the damages were relatively minimal than during a bomb explosion, only destroying soft materials inside the establishment.

He said apart from some of the clothes inside the shop at the time of the explosion, the machines owned by the establishment were not destroyed.

Meanwhile, the victim was brought to the World Citi Colleges Hospital for treatment for the third degree burns she sustained in her arms and legs.