Four persons were killed when a chemical reactor blew up inside SB Organics Limited, a bulk drugs manufacturing company, in Hathnoora mandal of Sangareddy district on Wednesday evening. Officials feared that the toll is likely to go up as 16 injured workers were shifted to a private hospital and seven were rushed to the Sangareddy Area Hospital. Officials from the Fire Department said that the fire was chemical in nature and was triggered by an explosion inside the factory.
Officials from the Sangareddy District Fire office said that they retrieved four bodies from the left side of the factory’s ground floor, which had a shed with machinery inside. Out of the 16 injured, the condition of two of them is said to be critical.
The deceased included Ravi Kumar, one of the Directors of the firm, Subramanyam, Suresh Paul and Daya Lal.
“After a fire call at around 5.15 p.m. four vehicles rushed to the spot and doused the flames. We are yet to identify the men who sustained injuries in the mishap. As the fire was chemical in nature, we used foam and water to tackle the fire and brought the blaze under control at the earliest,” said the official.
Sangareddy police said that there were no eyewitnesses to the mishap and that a probe was ordered to ascertain the exact cause of fire. A case was booked by the Sangareddy police.
Sangareddy District Collector Valluri Kranti said that the people who were injured in the fire accident have been shifted to the nearby medical facilities. “The entire district administration has been engaged in the relief efforts at the site of the incident,” she said in a statement.
Later, Narsapur MLA P. Sunitha Laxma Reddy visited the accident site of SB Organics Ltd. and said the situation was quite scary as the place had dismembered and mutilated bodies of the workers. According to her, there was a blast in one reactor at the plant in Chandapur of Hathnoora mandal in the evening. “The workers, who found leakage in the reactor first switched off the power supply and then stopped oil supply to it. While they were in the process of disconnecting power to the other reactors, there was a deafening sound followed by blast in the reactor,” said Ms Sunitha.
Environment and Forests Minister Konda Surekha too visited the accident site to assess the situation.
