Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel and Pokhara Metropolitan Mayor Dhana Raj Acharya, who sustained burn injuries on Saturday, are undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Kirtipur Hospital.

They were earlier in the day medevaced to Kathmandu from Pokhara for treatment following an accident during the inaugural event of the Pokhara Visit Year 2025.

The incident occurred when hydrogen-filled balloons went up in flames during the event at the Exhibition Centre in Pokhara-9, Naya Bazar. Finance Minister Paudel first pressed a button to inaugurate the event digitally and Mayor Acharya was facilitating Paudel in the process. Then, when they tried to fly a bunch of balloons, a flying spark fired the hydrogen-filled balloons.

Then, the minister was rushed to Gandaki Medical College and the mayor was taken to the Fishtail Hospital in Pokhara for preliminary medication, according to Motilal Timsina, spokesperson for the metropolis.

He said that the balloons were filled with hydrogen whereas they should have been filled with helium. "We knew it only after the explosion," he said.

Later, they were flown to Kirtipur Hospital in Kathmandu on a Simrik Air helicopter for treatment.

At the hospital, a team of six doctors and three nurses are taking care of Paudel and Acharya.

“The preliminary assessment shows 5-6 percent burn on their faces but there is a possibility of damage in their respiratory systems and chest,” Kirtipur Hospital said in a statement issued in the evening. “Therefore, they need to be taken care of under close observation.”

According to chief of the plastic surgery department at the hospital, Dr Bishal Karki, who is involved in the treatment of the two leaders, they can ascertain whether they have an injury in three to four days. “If the wounds deteriorate, we have to go for surgery,” he said.

According to him, both Paudel and Acharya have burns on hands as well as faces. But Mayor Acharya has more severe injuries, he said.

“They need to be medicated under close observation for 48 hours also because they inhaled smoke at the time of explosion,” he explained. “That is why we have kept them in the ICU.”