Lucknow: The fire that broke out in Vikas Nagar on Wednesday evening escalated into a devastating inferno due to the presence of nearly 50 illegally hoarded LPG cylinders, officials said.The cylinders stored inside shanties triggered a series of powerful explosions, setting off a chain reaction that engulfed the entire cluster within minutes.Aman Gupta, a local resident, said: “We heard 10-15 loud explosions as cylinders began bursting one after another. Within minutes, several shanties were reduced to ashes.”Prayas Chaturvedi, who works at a nearby automobile showroom, said he heard loud blasts and stepped outside to see a massive fire.Rajeev Verma, who was crossing Kukrail Bridge at the time of the incident, said, “There were continuous blasts. People stopped their vehicles, unsure of what was happening. The sky was filled with thick black smoke.”Another commuter, Shalini Mishra, said the explosions triggered panic across the area. “We could feel the impact of the blasts even from a distance. Traffic came to a standstill as people feared the fire might spread,” she said.Repeated blasts forced firefighters to maintain distance at several points, delaying efforts to douse the fire.Officials clarified that not all cylinders exploded. A senior official in the fire department said that several cylinders were recovered intact during the operation. “Multiple LPG cylinders were found at the site. While some exploded and escalated the fire, others were safely removed in time to prevent further damage,” he said.District administration and police are now probing the illegal storage of LPG cylinders, which is suspected to have been a major factor behind the rapid escalation of the fire and extensive destruction that followed.
