FEBRUARY 24, 2015
Three persons were charred to death and one severely injured
after a major fire broke out at a chemical factory situated in Padra, some 20
kilometres from Vadodara. The fire broke out late Monday night and could not be
controlled till early Tuesday morning, police said.
The company, Shiva Pharmachem Limited, manufactures
chemicals including alkaline chloride, sodium hydroxide, sulphur dioxide, among
other solutions and acids that are used in making pharmaceutical and
agrichemical products. The factory is situated at Luna village in Vadodara’s
Padra taluka.
According to police, the company’s unit manufacturing sodium
hydroxide caught fire with a loud blast on Monday night, though the cause of
fire was yet to be ascertained. The intensity of fire was such that people from
far off villages could see it raging in the sky and hundreds of them gathered
outside the factory, hampering rescue operation, police said.
All three employees killed in the incident were working
inside the P-3 plant of the company when fire broke out, though factory
officials and rescue team remained uncertain about the number of persons
trapped inside till early Tuesday morning. The injured was rushed to the local
hospital for treatment.
While one dead body was taken out within two hours of the
incident, police and fire personnel deployed at the site could not find two
other bodies till early Tuesday morning. As many as six fire brigade tanks were
pressed into service, including tanks from ONGC and Vadodara fire department.
“One local fire brigade team was soon brought to the site
while other vehicles and a team of fire personnel were brought from Vadodara.
The rescue operation continued throughout the night as fire could not be
controlled till early Tuesday morning because the site of the unit that was
engulfed in fire is oddly placed with little space to position talks,” Padra
police inspector MK Gurjar said. “Two more bodies could not be found before
fire was doused early morning. We have not yet been abler to identify the three
killed,” he said.