Thar Ambulance Fire Toll Rises to 10
The death toll from the ambulance explosion at a rural health centre in Tharparkar has risen to 10, after three more injured people succumbed to their injuries on Thursday. The Thar ambulance fire toll has now moved from seven dead on the night of the blast, to nine in the following day’s reports, and now to 10, as injured survivors continue to die in hospital.
The explosion happened at the rural health centre in Dano Dandal village, in Nagarparkar tehsil, while staff were transferring a patient to Mithi. According to sources cited by The Express Tribune, the dead include rural health centre dispensers Jaswant Meghwar and Dino, ambulance driver Pandhi Rajar, and watchman Ishaq Thebo. The other people who died were identified as Lachhman, Pradeep, Lado, Kareeman, Raju, and a newborn baby.
The injured include community midwives Samina Junejo and Noor Jehan, who were taken to hospitals in Mithi and Karachi for treatment. Samina Junejo, one of the injured midwives, said the woman at the centre of the transfer had delivered a baby normally but developed complications shortly afterwards. The family and healthcare staff decided to transfer her to Mithi, and the explosion occurred while a gas cylinder was being replaced in the ambulance, she said. The exact cause of the blast remains under investigation.
Thar ambulance fire toll: a chain of rising figures
Feature Pakistan first reported seven dead and five injured on the night of the blast, when an oxygen cylinder exploded at the health centre. A follow-up then put the toll at nine, after the deputy commissioner in Mithi confirmed further deaths. The latest figure of 10 comes from Tribune sources on Thursday, and it reflects deaths among the injured rather than a new incident.
That pattern is common after blast injuries, where burns and complications claim lives over days rather than hours. It also means the toll may not yet be final, since two midwives remain under treatment in Mithi and Karachi. Their condition will decide whether the figure moves again.
The ambulance belonged to the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative, which runs the rural health centre at Dano Dandal. Staff at such centres handle transfers to district hospitals as a routine part of their work, often at night and often with limited equipment. The blast has therefore raised questions that go beyond one vehicle, about how oxygen cylinders are handled, replaced and maintained in ambulances and health facilities across Sindh.
Thar ambulance fire toll: compensation and safety review
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has announced compensation of Rs2 million for the family of each person killed in the incident, and he has ordered a transparent inquiry into the tragedy. He also directed the health department to review safety arrangements at ambulances and healthcare facilities across the province, with particular attention to the handling, replacement and maintenance of oxygen cylinders and other medical equipment.
The department has been instructed to introduce effective safety measures in light of the inquiry’s findings, to prevent similar incidents. That instruction matters because the immediate cause is still described as under investigation. Until the inquiry reports, the public record contains two competing details: the cylinder was being replaced in the ambulance when the blast happened, according to the injured midwife, while the exact trigger of the explosion has not been officially established.
President Asif Ali Zardari has also expressed grief over the deaths and called for a transparent investigation, while the Pakistan Peoples Party chairman has demanded that the facts be brought to light and that those responsible face strict punishment if negligence or a criminal act is found. Those calls set a clear expectation for the inquiry: it must explain how a routine patient transfer turned into a fatal explosion, and it must say what will change in cylinder handling as a result.
