SHENZHEN residents are being reminded to use piped gas at home with great care as a number of casualties from gas explosions has been reported recently.

Two brothers in Bao’an District are the latest victims of a pipeline gas explosion. They were seriously burnt May 20 when their apartment in Huameiliyuan, Longhua, caught fire after a blast, the Southern Metropolis Daily said. An official investigation revealed that improper use of pipeline gas was to blame.

The younger brother switched on the pipeline gas in their apartment to cook, without noticing his family had temporarily removed the pipe to instead use bottled gas, the mother of the two brothers was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Gas started leaking quickly and exploded, badly burning Hu Jindong and his elder brother Hu Jun, who was brushing his teeth in the kitchen sink.

“Hu Jindong fled the kitchen on fire and I heard the elder son screaming in the kitchen for help,” said the mother.

The brothers were taken to the Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital. Doctors at the hospital said Hu Jindong has 40 percent burns and Hu Jun 70 percent and both will need skin grafts.

In another accident, a Shenzhen University teacher was also badly injured in an explosion in her Nanshan apartment.

On Oct. 19 last year, Wen Ming switched on the pipeline valve to prepare dinner. She didn’t notice that the water heater in the bathroom had been removed, and the pipeline was open.

Shenzhen Gas Group said a lack of precautions in using pipeline gas is the main cause of the accidents in the city.

(Cao Zhen)