4 kids, 1 adult suffer burn injuries after balloon bursts

Mumbai: One adult and four children suffered burn injuries after a gas balloon burst during Republic Day celebrations on Saturday morning at Santa Cruz. All injured were rushed to civic-run Bhabha Hospital in Bandra and two critical cases were referred to civic-run KEM Hospital.

The incident occurred near Guru Hare Krishna School where the balloons were being released into the air to mark the occasion. According to the medico treating the patients, the balloon contained hydrogen.

The injured have been identified as Roshan Shah (12), who sustained major burn face and hand injuries, and Subhash Dubey (38), who sustained injuries all over his body and major wounds on both arms. Both are recuperating at KEM Hospital. Harshad Pawar (14) sustained a superficial hand injury, Shubham Jha (9) sustained hand and scrotum injuries and Chittaranjan Jha (11) sustained a hand injury. All three are recuperating at Bhabha Hospital.

Hydrogen-filled balloons can cause fire incidents as the gas is explosive. Many a time, vendors fill balloons with hydrogen instead of helium since both are lighter than air and the former is abundantly available and cheaper than the latter. Helium, however, is much safer as it is an odourless, tasteless, non-poisonous, non-flammable, non-explosive, non-toxic, non-radioactive naturally occurring and an environment-friendly gas

Dr Pradeep Jadhav, medical superintendent of Bhabha Hospital, said, “In the morning we received five patients out of which two have sustained deep burn injuries and we have sent them to KEM Hospital. The rest
have superficial burn  injuries.”