A 44-year-old government school teacher and two migrant workers were among seven people killed after a pickup truck laden with diesel caught fire and exploded on Saturday while transferring fuel to another vehicle in Andhra Pradesh ’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district, police said.
The fire spread to a nearby dumper truck and a two-wheeler. All three vehicles were charred completely. The blast took place in Ananthagiri mandal’s Peechumamidi village at around 8.30 am.
District SP Amit Bardar said the truck was carrying fuel for earthmoving machines engaged in road construction work in the area. He said it caught fire as workers prepared to transfer the fuel to another vehicle. An LPG cylinder inside one of the vehicles also subsequently exploded, said police officers.
He also dismissed reports of detonators causing the blast. “It was an accidental fire. State tribal welfare and home ministers Gummadi Sandhya Rani and Vangalapudi Anitha expressed shock and grief.
Because the work site was around 100 kilometres away, the SP said the workers were moving diesel in drums to refuel vehicles. District collector T Nishanthi said the victims’ immediate families would receive an ex gratia sum of ₹ 5 lakh each on behalf of the contractor.
The pickup truck belonged to the contractor executing the road construction work,” he said.
