10 workers were killed after an explosion in Bhosari industry
Times of India, PUNE: At least 10 women workers were killed and nine injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a small-scale celluloid container manufacturing unit at Landewadi in the MIDC Bhosari estate, S-Block, late Wednesday afternoon.
Prima facie, the police suspect it to be a case of cylinder explosion, which resulted in fire and heavy smoke. The exact cause of the blaze was being ascertained.
While the bodies of four victims were recovered in a completely charred condition from the accident site, the other six victims, who were holed up in a bathroom in their attempt to avoid the blaze, died of suffocation.
The manufacturing unit, Sai Industries, is part of a relatively dense cluster of small scale units. It supplies celluloid containers to the ammunition factory, said deputy commissioner of police (zone III) Mahesh Patil said at the accident site.
Among the nine injured, who were admitted to the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH), the condition of one victim, who suffered a head injury, was stated to be critical.
Patil said that 28 workers, including 23 women, were attending various jobs inside the unit when the explosion happened.
As a spontaneous reaction late in the evening, irate residents from Landewadi and adjoining localities gathered at the accident site and indulged in sloganeering against the police and the fire brigade.
They alleged that the fire brigade reached the spot around 4.30 pm whereas the blast occurred sometime between 3.30 and 4 pm. Similarly, they alleged that the police too reached the site around 5 pm.
A section of protestors demanded access to the unit on suspicion that some more victims may have lost their lives. Senior police officials were working on defusing the tension.
The unit is located close to settlements like Shantinagar, Ambedkarnagar and Landewadi, which account for over 3,000 settlers, mostly from other parts of the state and even outside Maharashtra.
Chaos and panic reigned supreme for quite some time after the deafening explosion had people from the adjoining units rush outside their homes to check what had happened.
It took a while for them to realise the gravity of the tragedy as they struggled in vain to get past the thick cover of smoke billowing out of the ground-plus two-storey structure.
Ram Karekar, a young eyewitness, said, “All we could hear in the initial few minutes was some women screaming and people running helter-skelter. A part of the unit was engulfed by the blaze and heavy smoke.”
A couple of women workers jumped from the second floor to escape the fire, Karekar said, adding that one of these women suffered head injury.
Riyaz Tamboli, who works in a neighbouring unit, said people feared that the fire may spread to other units. “There was total chaos,” he added.
Rescuers were able to move in after the fire brigade vehicles reached the site along with the fire-fighting paraphernalia. “We removed at least six victims who had shut themselves inside a bathroom,” said Karekar. “All these victims appeared to be in a state of unconsciousness owing to suffocation,” he said.
For a teenaged canteen boy, it was a close shave as he was about to enter the manufacturing unit. The fact that he experienced the blast effect first-hand, drove him to a state of shock. All he could say was, “I came here only a few days back”.
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