Mumbai: At least five workers were killed and more than 100 others injured in a deafening boiler explosion that rocked a chemical company at the MIDC industrial estate at Dombivli in the neighbouring Thane district, on Thursday.
The fire and other rescue officials, who had arrived on the scene soon after the explosion took place at 11.30 am, apprehended that by evening the toll might go up further, given that at least seven persons out of the 94 injured admitted to the various nearby hospitals were in a critical condition.
As many as 75 workers were reportedly inside the chemical company when the boiler plant exploded all of a sudden. Though there was no specific information as to the identities of the persons killed and those injured, the authorities suspected that a majority of the persons killed and injured were employees of the chemical unit where they were working.
Of the injured, 30 have been admitted to Shivam Hospital, where seven persons are undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). While 28 others have been admitted to MS Hospital, 13 injured are being treated at Icon Hospital. As many as 15 injured have been admitted to Shastry Hospital, while the remaining 8 are being treated at the Neptune Hospital.
So massive was the impact of the explosion that took place at the plant of Messrs, Probace Enterprises, located in the Phase II of Dombivli’s MIDC
industrial area, that glass panes of flats and shops in nearby buildings and industrial units were shattered.
Several cars and two-wheelers parked in the vicinity were also damaged. At least a dozen pedestrians were injured when flying pieces of window panes emanating from the nearby buildings hit them.
At least half a dozen industrial units, including Herbert Brown Pharma & Research and Acharya Group, located in the adjacent plots suffered considerable, owing to the spread of fire and splinters emanating from the affected Probace Enterprises’ plant.
The decibel shot up to such high levels that people in at least five kilometres area around Probace Enterprises’ plant. Initially people living in the nearby areas thought that a “bomb explosion” had taken place in their vicinity. However, when they saw leaping fire and thick clouds of smoke emanating from the MIDC area, they realised that it was an industrial explosion.
As many as 15 fire-tenders and water tankers from Dombivli, Thane, Kalyan and other surrounding area – as also NDRF teams from Thane and Pune — rushed to the spot to tackle the emergency.
Thane District Collectror Mahendra Kalyankar and Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Commissioner E Ravinderan supervised the rescue operations. It was not immediately known as to what triggered the boiler explosion.
In a series of tweet put out after the incident, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “Saddened to know about the unfortunate & tragic incident that took place at Dombivali. … Spoke to police officials and local authorities and asked them to speed up the relief operations. #Dombivali We are constantly in touch with the local administration and we would leave no stone unturned in our efforts and relief operation”.
Fadnavis also visited the mishap site later in the evening and took stock of the situation. Thane’s Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde, who was among the first lot of politicians to visit the mishap site, described the incident as “unfortunate” and the State Government would take steps to shift dangerous industrial units out of the residential zone.
Maharashtra’s Industry Minister Subhash Desai, who visited the mishap site, said that the state government would soon come out with a policy to shift all chemical units from Dombivli to other areas. “The residential area has gone up markedly around the Dombivli area. Time has come for us to shift the chemical units from this MIDC industrial area to some other place. We will soon take a decision in this regard,” Desai said.
Desai said that he had ordered an inquiry into Thursday’s incident and the state government would initiate stringent action against all those persons, including the MIDC officials, if found guilty in the probe.
