ISLAMABAD: The death toll from a boiler blast in Pakistan’s eastern city of Faisalabad on Friday has risen to 20, state media reported as Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz took notice of the incident.
Rescue officials said on Friday at least 15 people were killed and seven injured in what they described as a boiler explosion in the industrial city of Faisalabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province, prompting a large-scale urban search and rescue operation.
Boiler explosions are a recurring industrial hazard in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab’s textile manufacturing belt, where outdated equipment, poor maintenance and weak regulatory enforcement have caused major accidents over the past decade. Faisalabad, a key textile hub, has seen several industrial fires and structural collapses linked to unsafe industrial practices.
According to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the blast took place in Crystal Chemical Factory near Shahab Town’s Kabaddi Stadium Ground, flattening part of a building and trapping multiple families beneath the rubble. Rescue teams later recovered more bodies from the rubble.
“Death toll in factory explosion has risen to 20 after expiry of 6 more victims here on Friday while Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz took notice of the incident and sought an urgent report,” the APP said.
The government or police have not confirmed the cause of Friday’s explosion but Rescue Punjab spokesperson Farooq Ahmed said the Rescue 1122 state-run service received a call about a “boiler accident.”
Initial Rescue 1122 findings indicate the blast was caused by a gas leak inside a chemical factory. Rescue officials said the explosion also damaged nine nearby houses.
A police spokesperson told APP that the explosion caused the roof of the factory and adjacent houses to cave in.
A Rescue 1122 spokesperson said search and rescue teams used advanced equipment to extract 27 victims from the debris. Twenty were found dead while seven were rescued with injuries.
“More than 145 rescuers and over 31 emergency vehicles including ambulances and fire units, participated in the operation,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The factory is owned by a person named Muhammad Qaisar Chughtai while another named Bilal Ali Imran worked as its manager. Police have launched a manhunt to arrest both individuals, the state media reported.
In April 2024, a steam boiler blast at Sargodha Cloth Mills on Sargodha Road in Faisalabad injured a dozen workers and caused part of the factory roof to cave in, with several later dying of burns. Rescue 1122 data cited at the time showed the city had recorded 20 boiler explosions or major fire incidents between June 2019 and May 2024, killing 13 workers and injuring 20 others.
Elsewhere in Punjab, at least two people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a boiler exploded at a factory on Multan Road in Lahore in October 2021, underscoring longstanding concerns over weak enforcement of industrial safety standards in Pakistan’s most populous province.
