A 40-year-old senior chemist who was reported missing in the fire accident at the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Parawada in Visakhapatnam, was found dead on Tuesday. The deceased has been identified as Srinivas, who was found buried under the rubble of the solvent factory.
On Monday night, an explosion took place in Visakha Solvent factory located in Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, at around 10.30 pm, while the workers were preparing methanol.
During the time of the incident, four persons-- a security guard, a chemist, a junior operator and a senior chemist-- were working in the factory.
The accident took place when the workers were fixing valves of a reactor. The factory had five reactors, according to police.
During this process, one of the valves developed a crack, triggering a fire. The fire spread to a tanker containing inflammable methanol which engulfed the area with fire.
While two employees escaped unhurt, a chemist identified as Mallesh, sustained 30% burn injuries, and the senior chemist was reported missing, Visakhapatnam Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), P Kishore told TNM. Mallesh is being treated for injuries at RK Hospital in Gajuwaka.
In the accident, three reactors were totally charred.
Speaking about the accident, the RDO said, “As per preliminary information, the operator and chemist are not given full-fledged training to operate. The companies should take responsibility to offer orientation of the safety procedures. Only after complete training, they should be allowed to operate,” he said.
A series of industrial accidents in Jawahar Pharma City in the past few days has left the residents worried.
Recently, on June 30, two workers died and four others suffered injuries following a gas leakage from Sainor Life Sciences pharma company.
Before this accident, a massive tragedy struck LG Polymers unit, Visakhapatnam after toxic gas Styrene leaked from the unit. In the incident, which took place on May 7, 12 people were killed and at least 3,000 residents were exposed to the toxic gas. Besides residents, 22 animals, which included cattle, were killed in the incident.