Old gas canisters fuel deadly blasts in Venezuela homes

FILE PHOTO: Members of a family sit next to an old gas canister, with a name written on it, at his home in the low-income neighbourhood of Petare, in Caracas, Venezuela April 30, 2022. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan housewife Leoana Maricuto was cooking in the kitchen with her husband and their 3-year-old son last week when a gas canister exploded, engulfing her in flames.

"My husband was making some potatoes, and all of a sudden the explosion happened," said Maricuto, 32, as she sat on her bed, legs bandaged, in her poor eastern Caracas neighborhood.