Fireball ignites tragedy in Jaipur crash horror

12 killed, several critically injured in chain of blazes after truck, LPG tanker collide on NH-48

- Senjuti Sengupta

A catastrophic chain of events unfolded on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway early on Friday when a truck crashed into an LPG tanker taking a U-turn, triggering a fireball that engulfed close to 34 vehicles, killing at least 12 people and leaving several more battling for their lives with severe burn injuries, while 14 people were unaccounted for.

"The Jaipur-bound tanker was coming from Ajmer and tried to take a U-turn from the highway to move towards the Agra Road," said Jaipur Police commissioner Biju George Joseph. "While taking the turn, an Ajmer-bound truck from Jaipur suddenly appeared and hit it from behind. The collision caused a gas leak and it immediately caught fire. Rest of the mishap took only 10 to 15 minutes."

Within two minutes of the initial collision, the leaking gas ignited, causing a massive blast that spread rapidly across hundreds of metres. Security camera footage from a nearby residence captured the moment of explosion at 5:25am, showing the fire sweeping through streets, engulfing structures in its path.

"When the fire brigade reached the spot at 6am, everything was already turned into ashes. It looked like a ghost town with burnt trucks, and vehicles standing everywhere on the highway and the cry of people asking for help could be heard at every part of the town", said a fire officer from the Bais Godam fire brigade, which dispatched five vehicles to the scene.

The fire destroyed 34 vehicles, including 10 containers, seven trailers, five trucks, eight four-wheelers, two pickups, and two sleeper buses, according to Health Department officials. Two passengers from one of the sleeper buses, travelling to Udaipur on the NH-48, were among the dead, while passengers in the second bus mostly escaped with injuries.