Two workers were injured and at least three vehicles were gutted in a major fire that broke out at Chandigarh distilleries and bottling plant in Banur on Monday. Fire tenders from Mohali, Rajpura, Dera Bassi, Mandi Gobindgarh and Chandigarh took nearly three hours to control the blaze.

The fire started with a blast while spirit was being siphoned into a tanker on the factory premises at around 3.15pm. Within seconds, the fire engulfed two other tankers and a truck holding liquor. The blaze also engulfed an office in the nearby building and a chemical lab.

Sources said around 150 workers were on duty at the time of the incident, who got frightened and some even jumped from the first floor of the building to save their lives.

Reports said supervisor Karamchand of Shakti Nagar in Dera Bassi, who was standing on the tanker to supervise siphoning of spirit, suffered severe burns. A worker Golu fractured his leg as he jumped from the first floor.

Kutch, May 17 (PTI) One person was killed and two others injured when a fire broke out during unloading of chemical from a tanker at Kandla complex near the port, police said. "An inferno broke out when some chemical was being unloaded from a tanker at a terminal operated by a private firm Kesar Chemicals in Kandla complex near the port," they said. One person died and two others sustained injuries, officials said. Around ten fire fighters including those of Kandla port reached the site and brought fire under control, they said, adding the tanker and the terminal were damaged in the incident.

Barwani (MP), May 16 (PTI) Two persons were killed and 11 others were injured today in an explosion in a truck carrying chemicals at Balsamund Check Post, police said. The truck was on its way to Indore from Mumbai. The explosion took place as the driver had parked it at the post and gone out for clearing paper work. Thirteen persons, standing around the truck, were injured seriously. Deepak Pancholi and one Pal died. The rest were admitted to Barwani hospital, police said adding that cause of the fire was not yet known.

The crew members of a container vessel had anxious moments following fire in a portion of the vessel, which was in the deep sea about 50 nautical miles away from the Mangalore coast. In a release, the Coast Guard said the situation was under control and the ship's crew members had been able to partially extinguish the fire.

The Coast Guard said its Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Mumbai received distress message from m.v. CAP Norte around 10 a.m. about fire in the vessel's cargo containers that contained 15 tonnes of polyamide sulphide chemical.

The Coast Guard's fast patrol vessel ICGS Savithri Phule was sent from the Mangalore coast and it reached the place around 1 p.m.

Chandigarh, April 30: At least four workers were killed and 12 others received burn injuries Monday after a chemical factory caught fire in Punjab's industrial town of Lalru, 30 km from here, police said.

The fire started following a blast in a reactor of the factory, a police officer said.

According to police, four bodies have been recovered so far from the factory.

At least 12 workers, who had received burn injuries, were rushed to nearby hospitals. The seriously injured ones were referred to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh's Sector 32, the officer added.

Fire tenders arrived from the industrial town of Derabassi and other places, but it took some time to control the fire, police said.

AHMEDABAD: Wastes stored in an open area inside Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) campus sparked off fire on Wednesday afternoon. However, no casualty or injury was reported in the incident.

The laboratory wastes of the high security establishment under the Department of Space includes various types of chemicals including inflammable chemicals, chemical containers, boxes and other substances. As a fire suddenly broke out around 12pm, the officials of the laboratory immediately alerted the fire department.

It took the fire tenders more than an hour to douse the fire and bring the situation under control at PRL. "We had a fire fighter vehicle and two water tankers at the place. We had to empty the water from both the tankers in controlling the fire," said additional chief fire officer Rajesh Bhatt.

As the fire officials were busy tackling the situation, staffs and officials of PRL gathered into a crowd to watch the situation. "The wastes have been lying there since a long time and should have been disposed of earlier," said one of the officials who did not wish to disclose his identity.

"We are unable to ascertain the cause of the fire as of now. There was no electrical wiring around the place which eliminated the possibility of short-circuit being the cause of fire. We noticed lots of scraps, wooden furniture and containers at the place," said Bhatt.

Fire broke out at a chemical factory and its storage godown in Kathwada GIDC near Odhav on Wednesday. The fire caused widespread damage in the factory as sudden blasts in barrels filled with solvent and other chemicals took place. The solvents are used as raw material to make varnish.

The chemical factory, in Annapurna Estate, Kathwada GIDC, that caught fire was owned by Vinay Goswami. The cause of the fire is unknown as it broke out at 2pm, and in minutes spread to the other parts of the factory. The fire officials, after being informed about the incident, reached the spot with 11 fire fighting vehicles, only to learn that 20 more fire fighting vehicles were required to douse the fire.

As the fire officials started to douse the fire with water and chemical foam, blasts in a few barrels containing chemicals took place. This caused injury to two volunteers including Firoz Shaikh and Ashish Mishra. Both were sent to Shardaben Hospital for treatment.

AHMEDABAD: City reported three major fire incidents on Sunday afternoon. In the first incident, an AMC waste disposal site in Gyaspur village in the outskirts of the city caught fire on Sunday evening after a dumper rammed into a stationary electric pole. Three fire fighters and two tankers of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AEFS) doused flames. AFES officials also attended fire calls from Odhav and Sarkhej-Bavla highway.

The officials said fire at Gyaspur was a major operation as they had to ensure that the fire does not spread in the highly inflammable heaps of waste. Another major operation was carried out in Odhav near Takshshila Society where nearby chemical units had disposed of their chemical waste near residential area and set it on fire.

"Nearby residents called us up after the burning chemical spread a stench in the area along with lot of smoke and fumes that caused eye and nose irritation. We sent six vehicles including fire fighters and tankers to control fire," said AFES officials.

A major fire broke out in a chemical storage unit, that was illegally set up in a residential complex, at Subashnagar in Jeedimetla. The incident spread panic for around four hours on Monday morning. Six families residing in two apartments nearby were evacuated. No casualties were reported.

The fire spread to the nearby paper packaging godown which was located on the ground floor of the adjacent residential apartment. It took almost five hours for fire personnel to bring the blaze under control. Four fire tenders were used for the operation. Officials said the fire control room received a call at 7.45 am and immediately a fire tender from Jeedimetla fire station rushed to the spot and started operations. Later, two more fire tenders from the Sanathnagar fire station and Patanhceru fire station joined the operations.

As the barrels kept with chemicals exploded, several vehicles, including a vehicle that was parked outside the apartment, got damaged. There were about 20 to 30 explosions, according to eye witnesses. The entire building developed cracks. The chemical storage unit was set up by one Devram Choudary on the ground floor of the building. He and his family stayed on the first floor and the second floor was vacant.

Immediately after the blast, he and his family fled, eyewitnesses said. The blaze spread to the nearby building and paper kept in the Laqshya Packaging Solutions godown on the ground floor was completely gutted. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Mr Ram, who stays nearby, said he woke up hearing a blast at about 7.30 am. About 20 to 30 blasts were heard. Immediately somebody alerted the fire control room about the accident. Ms Raja Kumari, who stays above the packaging unit, was seen crying at the

HYDERABAD: A two-storied residential complex was gutted on Monday in a major fire accident at a chemical storage unit in Jeedimetla's Subhash Nagar. Fifty cans of chemical solvents stored in the ground floor of the building caused an explosion.

The cause of fire is being investigated, but fire officers at the site said that the friction caused between the solvent and the containers could have set off the spark.

The incident occurred at around 7.30 am when most of the inhabitants on the first and second floors were asleep. The first few containers exploded to alert the inhabitants who made their escape by jumping onto the roof of an adjacent building. No injuries were reported although the building was found to have developed cracks. Fire officials said that the building might collapse any time due to this.

MUMBAI: Seven persons including three foreign crew were injured when a fire broke out following an explosion on board a Korean chemical freighter at Mumbai harbour today.

Two of the injured are reported to be serious, Mumbai Port Trust officials said.

"At 11.25 am, the Korean owned 9500 DWT chemical tanker Royal Diamond 7 reported to the Mumbai port's vessel traffic system/control station that an explosion had occurred and three crew members have been injured," an MPT press statement said.

A chemical tanker caught fire on Saturday at 11.30 am following an explosion that occurred at the deck of the tanker. The Royal Diamond 7 was berthed at New Pir Pau berth, a chemical jetty belonging to the Mumbai Port Trust, to discharge a consignment of 2,000 tonnes of Toulene imported by Aegis Chemicals Ltd. The Marshal Island Flag Korean that owns the tanker from Singapore had berthed in the jetty on Saturday.

After completing cargo discharge operations, it was carrying out the stripping move for sailing out when the fire erupted. The Port Fire Service personnel put its fire fighting systems into operation to douse the flames. Three crew-members of the vessel got injured and were rushed to a nearby hospital. "The vessel is set to be removed from the jetty to a safer location in the harbour shortly," said Chief PRO VR Joglekar.

R. Madina of Pudunagar A block in Vyasarpadi termed Tuesday morning ‘frantic.' The reason – the homemaker and hundreds of other residents, including children in the locality, had to run for their lives following a scare that a fuel station on fire nearby was going to explode.

“This is the fifth time that there is a fire in the petrol bunk. We are scared and want the bunk to be shifted,” said Ms. Madina, who along with other residents, staged a road roko outside Prema Service Station, an IOC fuel station on MKB Nagar Main Road in Vyasarpadi. They demanded its immediate closure.

Police said, a dispensing unit in the bunk which also has an auto LPG dispensing facility, caught fire at 7 a.m. “Some workers shouted out to all residents to flee. A chemical stench emanated, and woman, children and elders from Pudunagar A block and Salaima Nagar located behind the bunk, ran to safety,” said K. Velavan, a resident.

SATARA: A massive fire broke out at a chemical factory in the Wai industrial estate in Satara district at 1 am on Sunday wherein one employee of the company sustained severe burns.

Four fire tenders from Satara fire brigade and Kisanveer sugar factory managed to control the fire after four hours. It took more than 10 hours for the fire to be completely doused, because of the chemicals in the unit. Meanwhile, employees of neighbouring companies also rushed to the spot to help control the fire.

Shift in-charge Ramesh Borate (40) of Karad sustained severe burns and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Satara.

The Wai police said that during processing, a chemical tank began to overflow. Borate tried to stop the chemical from overflowing when the fire broke out and a small blast also took place. The workers present stopped the chemical supply to the tank and rushed down the stairs.

A storeroom on the first floor of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) caught fire early on Sunday morning once again exposing glaring lapses in the state-run hospital’s blaze preparedness.

An unattended mangle of wires led to the short-circuit in the storeroom, which was stocked with inflammable material like broken doors and oxidising agents like bleaching powder, around 6am.

Hospital sources have pegged the loss — in terms of disinfectants, plastic buckets, drums, doors etc. — at Rs 8 lakh.

Though the affected room is right next to the tuberculosis OPD, the early morning incident on a no-rush Sunday prevented a mishap of greater proportions.

The RIMS morning guard who raised the alarm said the corridors had been blurred by dense smoke, a grim reminder of the tragedy at AMRI Hospitals in Calcutta where some 90 patients suffocated to death in December last year.

“I was coming out of the toilet on the ground floor when I noticed smoke on the first floor. Within no time, the corridor in front of me was engulfed by dense smoke. I alerted everyone,” he said. “Had it not been Sunday, there would have been a stampede at the OPD,” he added.

According to an eyewitness, hospital employees tried to battle the blaze with outdated gear, wasting an hour in the process. A fire tender arrived around 7.30am and doused the fire in half an hour.

“Two guards brought a fire extinguisher from near the director’s chamber (200 metres away). But the handheld equipment only aggravated the fire,” the witness said.

Fire officials said the same was possible if the chemical in the extinguisher had expired. Further probe revealed that the fire extinguisher used by the guards had expired two years ago and the RIMS management had never bothered to refill the chemical solution.

A major fire broke out in a godown in Navi Mumbai’s Turbhe area on Wednesday morning. The incident took place at the Central Warehousing Corporation godown in Sector 20. The fire also led to a chemical leak in the area.

Fire officials said they received a call around 10 am on Wednesday, after which fire tenders were rushed to the spot. “The employees escaped when the fire broke. We tried dousing the flames as fast as we could,” said a fire official.

The official said while they were trying to douse the flames, bystanders began coughing while some complained of respiratory problems.

“It was then that we inquired and realised that sulphur was stored on the premises. We got trucks filled with sand to douse the flames and told bystanders not to stand close to the godown,” the officer said.

The fire was extinguished five hours after it broke out. Four persons who were standing close to the area were rushed to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Hospital in Vashi after they complained of respiratory problems.

Doctors at the hospital said while the condition of those who were rushed to the hospital is stable, they are suffering from eye infections, coughs and breathing problems as a result of inhaling the sulphur dioxide fumes.

A labourer was killed and five others sustained injuries in an explosion at the Sulphur Recovery Unit II at MRPL on Saturday. Nagesh, 25, is the dead.

All the injured were rushed to KMC and they are out of danger. The blast occurred during welding work at the site. As two chemical engineers of the unit were on leave, chemical engineer from a different unit was on duty when the accident occurred.

The contract labourers blamed the MRPL for not taking adequate safety measures, which according to them led to the mishap. A blast had occurred in MRPL a few years ago. The deceased Nagesh of Kulai here was working in MRPL as a contract labourer for the last four years.

“The refinery operations were not affected. The management is investigating the incident and a high-level expert committee has been constituted,” said an official release from MRPL.

One person was killed and six others seriously injured in a fire that broke out at a chemical factory.

Kanpur DIG Rajesh Rai said the fire broke out at six in the morning in Sumit chemical factory in the Panki area.

The fire spread rapidly as many chemical tankers were kept nearby and the situation turned serious trapping the workers one of whom was

A 30-year-old man was killed in a freak accident on Wednesday morning while he was working in a plastic recycle factory — Surya Traders in Kaikondanahalli on Sarjapur Main road in R.R. Layout. The deceased identified as Niranjan Ramdev Prasad was a native of Bihar. According to preliminary investigation, the incident took place around 12:30 pm when Niranjan was trying to cut open a 20 litre plastic drum, filled with industrial waste with an electrical cutter.

Accidentally, the chemical drum exploded and he fell on the electrical cutter which cut into his chest and he died on the spot. The blast led to a fire in the factory. The factory workers who were in the premises tried to douse the fire with water. Three fire tenders finally extinguished the fire. Property worth `2 lakh has been destroyed in the fire.

The police suspect that the plastic drum which was filled with highly inflammable substances was tried to cut open without removing its lid and that could have led to the explosion. Police have sent the pieces of drum and other materials to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The HSR Layout police have registered a case against the company owner and will take further action based on the FSL report.

Indian officials have asked Aurobindo Pharma to provide details of the late November fire at a manufacturing plant that left two workers dead and one injured. The fire, which happened at an API plant in Andhra Pradesh, started after an explosion when the chemical trityl perchlorate was in use.

The request aligns with government concerns over pharma manufacturing safety, reports Pharmabiz. The report notes the rising incidence of fires at drugmaker facilities, which have caused about 6 deaths recently.

Officials say they are conducting regular safety checks. "In spite of our reminders, most of the pharma [companies] are violating the safety norms and resorting to deceiving tactics," a factories officer explains in the report. Manufacturers are hiring unqualified laborers who are unaware of the hazards, he adds.

Aurobindo had been cited for fire safety violations in April.

Separately, the state Pollution Control Board has charged 6 Hyderabad-area drugmakers with environmental violations concerning the disposal of spent solvents. A task force suspects the companies are selling the substances to construction companies, which use them to produce bitumen for road construction rather than safely disposing of it.

The board is threatening the shutdown of the following companies: Lakshmi Saraswathi Chemicals & Organics, Sri Harsha Organic, Apex Drugs & Intermediates, Shruti Laboratories, SKR Chemicals and Sujith Chemicals, according to the Times of India.

Of late with the rising incidents of fire accidents in pharmaceutical factories the safety concerns have become a serious matter of debate. There has been a succession of fire accidents happening in chemical factories in and around Hyderabad.

Last week if it was an explosion in a chemical factory which killed 4 people in Green Park at Polepalli Pharma Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla, two days later, the explosion of a chemical reactor had charred the bodies of two employees in a huge fire at a pharmaceutical company at Patancheru about 50 kms from Hyderabad.

The fire broke out at the chemical factory of Rantus Pharma in Pashamylaram industrial area of Patancheru in Medak district. The factory was completely gutted. Two employees working at the factory did not return home. Their families lodged a complaint with the police. Investigators found skeletal remains of the missing employees in the rubble. The dead have been identified as stores manager Ravindranath and worker Ram Singh.

Earlier it was believed that only six workers had been injured in the fire. According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuits. The fire broke out and spread to neighbouring factories. Fire-fighting personnel battled for five hours to control the flames.

“It is high time that the pharmaceutical companies should take utmost care and precautions to avoid any kind of fire accidents. Otherwise it gives a wrong impression to the world and may compel investors to look out for other safer zones. Already the pharma industry is moving a bit slow due to agitations locally and economic slow down in the international markets,” said an industry analyst.

For worker and operator who are working in chemical factories near reactors or blast furnaces they should be mind full of accidents and always be alert and cautious. Because in most of the chemical factories and chemical reactors there are possibilities of explosions from uncontrolled chemical reactions due to overpressure or due to release of energy from exothermal reactions (a result of mechanical damage or corrosion).

The worker should also be cautious and take precautions against exposure to hazardous substances due to a sudden release of toxic materials from reactors due to the work-related accident or as a result of human error.

Exposure to high temperatures and heat-stress from chemical reactors and exposure to carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic substances present in the reactor or released from the reactor during cleaning and maintenance work may also cause catastrophic damage to the working force in the chemical factories.

Exposure to substances that can harm the nervous system and exposure to suspended dust PM10 can give rise to respiratory diseases.

Hyderabad: Two employees were killed in a huge fire at a pharmaceutical company at Patancheru near here, police said.

The fire broke out Sunday at the chemical factory of Rantus Pharma in Pashamylaram industrial area of Patancheru in Medak district, about 50 km from Hyderabad. The factory was completely gutted.

Two employees working at the factory did not return home Sunday. Their families lodged a complaint with the police. Investigators Monday found skeletal remains of the missing employees in the rubble. The dead have been identified as stores manager Ravindranath and worker Ram Singh.

It was earlier believed that only six workers had been injured in the fire.

According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuit. The fire broke out in the evening, and spread to neighboring factories. Fire-fighting personnel had to battle for five hours to control the flames.

This is the second such accident in three days. Four workers of a chemical factory were killed in a reactor blast at Polepalli Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla in Mahabubnagar district near Hyderabad last Friday.

Six workers suffered severe burns in a major fire that occurred in a pharmaceutical factory in the Pashamylaram industrial area in Patancheru, Medak district, on Sunday.

The reactor of Rantus Pharma Pvt. Ltd., which manufactures Tramadol, an analgesic, burst, and fire engulfed the entire building and later spread to adjacent buildings housing chemical companies Chaitanya Chloride, Aurobindo Chemicals and Satya Dev Chemical.

The injured workers were identified as Husain Ali, Javed Ali, Bapar Singh, Ravindernath, Sujam and Sriram. They are being treated at Remedy Hospital in Kukatpally. The condition of one worker is said to be critical.

KADAPA: The prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Hospital here has poor safety measures despite experiencing two fire mishaps since it inception.
RIMS was established by former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2006 with the objective of providing better medical services and health care for the people of Kadapa district.
Several crores of rupees were spent on providing infrastructure facilities at RIMS, but little attention is paid to safety aspects. The lack of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire services department only indicates that the building has not complied with the National Building Code. According to district fire officer K Jaganmohan Reddy, RIMS authorities have not even sought the NOC.
There are fire extinguishers at every ward, but they are not functional. The last time the fire extinguishers with dry chemical powder were refilled was in 2007 though it is mandatory to do it once in one year. In case of fire extinguishers with carbon-di-oxide, they need to be checked from time to time. However, it is not being done.

Hyderabad, Dec 16 (PTI) A man was burnt alive, while four others were grievously injured, when an abandoned building, where a huge stock of chemicals was stored, caught fire in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh this evening, police said. The mishap took place on the outskirts of Polepally village in Jedcherla mandal around 4.30 pm, after a group of labourers used glass-cutters for dismantling the abandoned building, when the spark, emanating from the glass-cutters lit the chemical substances and the labourers came in contact with the fire, they said. "One person was burnt alive in the incident, while four others sustained about 90 per cent burn injuries and were rushed to different hospitals in Hyderabad," Mahabubnagar DSP Geetha Devi said. The fire was extinguished within an hour and further investigations are on, she said. PTI VVK NP

BANGALORE: Little did those who moved into the new building on 12th cross in Kadirenahalli, South Bangalore know they were bang next to a ticking bomb. On Tuesday morning, when fire destroyed chemicals and other raw material used to manufacture incense sticks at Balaji Agarbathi Pvt Ltd, residents realized the folly of having a factory in a residential area.

It took 11 hours and 19 fire tenders making multiple trips to bring the fire under control. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but the three-storey factory was completely gutted and the loss is yet to be calculated. Fire service officers said the building neither had fire-fighting equipment nor a No-Objection Certificate from the department.

A group of cooks who came to cater for a function in a house opposite the factory sounded the first alarm at 4.30am. One of them saw fumes coming out of the ground floor but before they could figure out what was going on, the fire engulfed the building.

Kanpur/Pune, Dec 4: Lakhs of rupees worth chemicals were destroyed in a big fire  at a chemical factory in Jajmau near Kanpur on Saturday.

Workers said, there was a sudden explosion at Ayesha Petrochemicals factory and soon flames began leaping from a section of the factory.

As workers tried to douse the fire with water, the fire spread further and there were explosions in chemical containers.

Six fire tenders reached the spot and controlled it after two hours. The factory used to refine mobil oil.

In Pune's Patil Estate slums, a major fire gutted 25-30 slums. LPG cylinders being used in the slums began exploding one after another. The fire was controlled after nearly three hours.

Local residents alleged that the fire brigade reached the spot late. They blocked the Pune-Mumbai highway for sometime. There was no casualty.

FARIDABAD: Two people died and around twenty were injured when a fire broke out in a factory on Wednesday. The blaze was reported from Imperial Auto Industries in sector 25 at around 11am, police said.

According to eyewitnesses, the factory workers were heating some chemicals on stove when it backfired. The fire then spread to the nearby drums that were containing thinner and since it is a highly inflammable chemical, the blaze became out of control. Fire brigades were immediately called and the fire was taken into control.

Thirteen persons have received burns and were rushed to Sarvoday Hospital in Sector-8, Faridabad. Two persons, Dinanath and Ranjeet, succumbed to the fire and were declared dead, the medical superintendent said. One of the injured with 90% burns is struggling in the ICU of Sarvoday Hospital. Four people with minor burns are also being treated in the Hospital. Six of the injured with more than 15% burns have been referred to Safdarjang Hospital in Delhi.

Two more labourers, caught in a fire in Kadi, succumbed to their injuries on Sunday. The two were injured following a fire in a pharmaceutical company near Kadi in Mehsana district. With two more death, the toll in the incident has touched seven. Five labourers were killed on Saturday in the massive fire.
According to Kadi police officials, of the four injured, Govind

Thakore, 25, a resident of Kadi died during medical treatment in Ahmedabad civil hospital. Ganeshji Thakore, 20, also succumbed to his injuries at Kalol civil hospital in the wee hours of Sunday.

On Saturday morning at 11 am a major fire broke out in a medicinal alcohol bottling unit of Kayvee Aeropharm Company in Kadi GIDC. The manufacturing and packing of the alcohol-based liquid, used by doctors as an antiseptic to clean wounds, was being done inside an air-tight room.

Fire broke out at around 2 in the afternoon at a chemical factory in Panchkula’s industrial area. The incident occurred at Colours Udyog, a medium-sized unit.In the fire, one worker sustained serious burns while another sustained minor burns. In a serious lapse, at least half an hour elapsed before the injured men were taken to the hospital by the fire brigade.
The incident happened at about 2 pm when an employee named Ramesh was working on the chemical reactor. It exploded and Ramesh was engulfed in flames.
No officers were present at the factory and it was after sometime that the fire brigade was informed and rushed to the unit. Aside from controlling the blaze, the firemen took the injured to the Panchkula Civil Hospital.
Local MLA, D.K. Bansal also arrived at the scene. He said that from the look of the factory a serious blast had occurred. He asserted that injured should be compensated and the incident should be probed by competent authorities.

NAVI MUMBAI: A fire broke out at a 14-storey tower in New Panvel on Sunday evening. However , no injuries were reported and fire brigade officials said that faulty wiring in the building caused the mishap. Close to 40 residents were evacuated.

N M Rathore, a fire official from Kalamboli, said, "The preliminary report suggests that the fire started in the building's electrical duct."

Meanwhile, a fire caused possibly by a short circuit gutted a chemical factory in Bhiwandi on Saturday.

A minor blast took place in Adugodi police limits on Saturday evening when a few workers who polish marble were disposing off the chemicals used for the purpose.

People, who were near the blast site,chased and caught one of the three workers who were disposing the chemicals.

The explosion took place at around 3.45pm near Mico signal at Govardhan Motor Factory. Luckily, no one was injured.

The arrested was identified as Mrutyunjay Aradhya, an employee of Marble World. His colleagues Mehtab and Jameel managed to escape. The blast occurred shortly after the trio dumped the chemicals. Upon nabbing Aradhya, the public called up the police and handed him over to them.

Aradhya was taken into custody and the police are on the look out for the other two workers. Later in the day, the police arrested Moin, an employee of the marble unit who had told the workers to dump the chemicals. The police said the officials of the Forensic Science Lab, Madiwala, collected samples of the chemical that triggered the explosion.

Bangalore, Oct 8 (PTI) A worker sustained minor injuries after a minor explosion occured near a marble factory here today, police said. He was discharged from hospital after administering first aid, police told PTI. According to police, the explosion occurred when the workers of the marble factory were throwing the remaining inflammable chemical used for marble polishing, in a dustbin outside the factory. A case has been registed against the factory owner.

MADURAI: Four women were seriously injured when some chemical mixture exploded in a fireworks unit near Sivakasi of Virudhunagar district on Thursday morning. The accident occurred when the factory workers were making crackers. The building partially collapsed in the fire accident.

...
On Thursday, 50 employees were working at the fireworks unit at Vadapatti, belonging to one Sukumar (50) from Sivakasi. The accident occurred at around 12 pm when manufacturing was under way. There was a loud explosion and the fire that broke out spread to the building, seriously injuring four people. Two of injured have been admitted to the Rajaji Government Hospital in Madurai while two others were taken to the Sivakasi Government Hospital.

MADURAI: With just three weeks to go for Diwali, another accident in a fireworks unit has claimed two more lives, taking the number of deaths in the fireworks industries in Virudhunagar to 26 this year. The latest mishap is the fifth major accident in 2011. This is also the first time in recent years that so many deaths have been recorded in the fireworks industries in a single year.

On Monday morning, about 150 employees reported to work at the Indian National Fireworks, belonging to M Kesavan (45) of Periyar Nagar in Sattur. P Antony Raj (25) was carrying a bag containing a chemical mixture on his shoulder and reached one of the 36 work sheds when the explosion occurred. The accident occurred at about 10.30 am when manufacturing was underway. There was a loud explosion and the fire that broke out spread to the second room, killing another worker, M Mani (35). Both hail from the same Vallampatti hamlet in the district. Both the work sheds were completely gutted in the explosion.

CHENNAI: A major fire broke out in the drug research labs of Orchid Chemical and Paramedical private limited in Sholinganallur on Old Mahapalipuram Road around 8am on Sunday. About 60 firefighters put off the fire after a three-hour struggle.

Security personnel of the firm noticed smoke from the top floor of a two-storey building that houses the lab units. Five fire tenders from Siruseri, Maraimalai Nagar, Tiruvanmiyur, Guindy and Tambaram rushed to the spot with 60 firefighters. "The smoke was fifty feet high and could be seen from two kilometres away," said M Ramamurthy, a resident of Sholinganallur.

The firefighters broke open some of the windows and a part of the wall on the second floor of the building. As air rushed in, flames started appearing. "The air conditioned building was sealed off and therefore only smoke was being produced when we reached the spot," deputy director, North Western region, fire and rescue services, T Vincent Devadass told TOI. No one was in the building as it was a Sunday and, hence, none was hurt in the fire.

The number of major fires in Chennai that was hovering in the less-than-20 range ramped up to over 40 in 2007. In 2008, there were 76 cases of major fires and in 2009, 61, though last year there were 28. "Not much attention is paid to basic fire safety precautions by people who are otherwise well qualified and educated," said P Manoharan, a fire auditor with National Insurance Company.

The police said the fire could have started from the electric heaters. "Each unit has several heaters. We suspect electrical short circuit," a police officer said.

The Kamakshipalya police on Friday arrested Srinivas Naidu, the owner of Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Convention Hall, where LPG cylinder blasts killed two and injured 15 people on Wednesday.

“After the incident, Naidu had fled Bangalore and had gone into hiding. A police team arrested him in Tamil Nadu on Friday,” said DCP (West) S N Sidramappa.

Naidu told the police that he had rented out the three-storey building to Dinesh Kumar nine months ago. He had also rented out a few houses attached to the hall and Kumar had stored some chemical in barrels, Naidu told the police.

A massive fire broke out in two dyeing units in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) phase II here on Wednesday killing four people and injuring 12. The fire was sparked due to some mechanical fault in Pooja Dyeing, and spread to SV Fabrics, which is adjacent to it.
Four industrial workers, Kuldeep Mohilee, 35, Nandkumar Jha, 40, Mohiddin Garib Miya ,52, and Ramprakash Tiwari, 40, were killed in the fire.  Dilip Gund, the deputy chief fire officer of MIDC, Dombivli said: “We got a phone call at 3.40am, informing us of the fire. When we reached the spot, the fire had begun to spread, so we had to control it and not let it spread to other units.”

When the fire broke out, around 100 employees were in the factory. While some managed to rush out, a few were trapped in the building. “It took four hours and 12 fire tenders to extinguish it. We rescued 18 employees from the first and second floors.” 

Prima facie, it was found that a pipeline carrying some inflammable chemical burst and the chemical caught fire. “It then assumed gigantic proportions as the store room contained clothes, paper and other material that fed the fire,” said Gund.

A twin blast, believed to have been triggered by cylinder burst, ripped through a three-storeyed building in Sumanahalli near Magadi Road here on Wednesday afternoon, killing a 17-year-old girl and injuring ten others, including five fire force personnel who went for a rescue operation.

The blast also triggered a fire that spread to a few residential buildings in the vicinity. The cause of the blasts, which had been initially thought to have been a cylinder burst, is yet to be ascertained as fingers are now being pointed out to a chemical unit operating in the first floor of the partially collapsed structure.

The victim has been identified as Kavitha (17), a resident of an adjacent house on whom a portion of the wall collapsed. The badly mangled body was found after more than four hours of rescue operation.

According to eye-witnesses, the ear shattering blast was reported around 1.30 p.m. in the three storeyed structure attached to Lakashmi Venkateshwara Kalayana Mantapa at Narasimainapalya.

While the ground floor of the building houses a kitchen, the chemical unit was operating in the second floor. The third and fourth floors had family as well as bachelor accommodations.

Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) officials have collected as many as 11 samples from the factory premises of Rubamin Limited in Panchmahals district where two persons died on Tuesday after a fire broke out.

According to the police, the fire broke out following a chemical reaction in a container during the renovation of bleaching process plant near Duniya village in Halol. “We collected samples from different spots and sent them to the Vadodara FSL where detailed examination would take place. The report would be submitted to the investigating officer,” said an official at the Halol police station.

The incident took place at around 11 am when the supervisor and a helper were transferring some chemical from the containers. While the supervisor, identified as Jaya Gopinath Amrutlingam from Chennai, died on the spot, Mohanlal Chauhan — a resident of Varanasi, UP — succumbed to the burns injuries at the SSG Hospital in Vadodara during treatment.

NEW DELHI—Six senior professors at the University of Delhi face up to 2 years in prison over their roles in India's first fatality from accidental exposure to radiation. On 2 September, Delhi police charged the university's former science dean and five colleagues in the chemistry department with "causing death by negligence" and violating the Atomic Energy Act over the improper disposal of a derelict gamma-ray research device in 2010.

The unprecedented case has shaken India's scientific community. "This should serve as a wakeup call," says metallurgist Srikumar Banerjee, chair of the Atomic Energy Commission in Mumbai. "The responsibility of maintaining the equipment was clearly with the university authorities."

The accident occurred after a University of Delhi official ordered a campus-wide spring cleaning to create space for newly recruited staff members. An auction committee cleared the sale of a Gamma cell 220 research irradiator, which a university chemist had imported from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. in 1968 but which had lain unused since 1985. On 26 February 2010, the university auctioned the 3500-kilogram device to a scrap dealer. Seven scrapyard workers, unaware that the machine they were dismantling contained cobalt-60—a radioactive, gray-blue metal resembling nickel—fell ill; one died.

reliminary investigations into the Delhi high court bomb blast have indicated that a nitrate-based explosive was used.


"A small crater has been created where the explosive was placed. Examination of the blast site indicates that a nitrate based explosive with traces of PETN or Pentaerythritol Trinitrate was used," said U K Bansal, special secretary home department. Bansal also added that PETN is an "explosive of choice".

Apparently, PETN is used for heart ailments to smoothen the blood flow. The chemical which was discovered by German forces in World War-I has become a favourite terror toy in the hands of organisations like Lashker-e-Tayiba, Hizbul Mujahideen [ Images ] and Al-Qaeda [ Images ] which have used it globally to cause mayhem.


However, traces of PETN in the explosive used has come as a huge surprise to forensic experts. "There are very few cases in the country where the use of PETN has been detected. This explosive is not very easily available," said a former director of forensic laboratory in Maharashtra [ Images ].

DHANBAD: Four students of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Maithan received burn injuries in a chemistry laboratory of the school.

Two of the students have been shifted to the Bokaro General Hospital as their condition was critical, according to doctors who attended them. The students received more than 50 per cent burns.

Tapas Kumar Roy, Sumit Gupta, Akash Yadav and Rohit Kumar studying in class IXA were doing practical classes in the chemistry laboratory when an explosion took place. However principal Sanjiv Sinha claimed the students had entered the laboratory even when their classes were not scheduled. They were expected to be present in English class.


But the students claimed that the chemistry practical class was scheduled and they were authorized to enter the lab. "The spirit lamp in the lab exploded injuring us." one of them said.

Their parents rushed to the Kendriya Vidyalaya. Most of the students in the school are children of the employees of the Davodar Valley Corporation.

YDERABAD: A major explosion in a chemical factory at Bapunagar in Amberpet on Thursday claimed the lives of two women. The incident at Nagamani chemical factory occurred while the women employees were mixing chemicals to prepare sodium sulphate in a 20-litre container. Around 11.30 a.m when both the employees— 35-year-old V Venkata Lakshmi and 29-year-old B Kalpana— were mixing the chemicals in the container, an explosion took place which ripped apart the container.
Both suffered severe injuries as they took the direct impact of the explosion. While Venkata Lakshmi died on the spot, Kalpana died while undergoing treatment at a corporate hospital. Both were residents of Venkataram Colony in Ramanthapur. Police arrested Nandagopal and registered a case.

VASCO: Vasco was hit by a major fire in the naval area at Varunapuri, Mangor, Friday night due to a suspected naphtha leak. More than 200 persons were evacuated from the navy's residential quarters close to the fire site.

Five persons were injured, one of them seriously, when they were hit by sparks from the fire. Fourteen fire tenders including those from the navy, Goa Shipyard Limited, Zuari Industries Limited, Mormugao Port Trust and fire services were fighting the fire with chemical foam, whose flames rose as high as 20 metres, till late night.

At around 8.10pm some persons near the naval colony gate noticed sparks and smoke, which soon turned into flames near a trench dug for road widening off the national highway. Within minutes the fire extended creating panic in the area. Authorities were alerted and the valves from the pumping station and at the port side shut. The pipeline goes to ZIL.

HYDERABAD: Two daily-wage workers died in an explosion at a chemical unit in Amberpet on Thursday morning.

The two victims were identified as Venkata Lakshmi, 45, and Kalpana, 30, of Venkatapuram Colony, who were working at Nagamani Chemicals owned by B Nanda Gopal from Bapu Nagar in Amberpet. The incident took place at 11.30am when the two workers were mixing hydrogen peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone and sodium sulphate to produce a chemical substance used in the manufacturing of asbestos sheet moulds and coolants. The high intensity of the explosion damaged a portion of the chemical unit's roof and severely injured both Venkata Lakshmi and Kalpana.

"With critical burn injuries, Venkata Lakshmi died on the spot and Kalpana succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at a nearby private hospital," Amberpet inspector A Srinivas said.

Police said that the chemical unit was an illegal one. Nanda Gopal, the owner of the unit, has been arrested and cases have been booked against him under section 304-A (Causing death due to rash or negligent act) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Independence Day celebrations were marred by an incident of an explosion that claimed the life of a child at Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

Seven-year-old Mohammed Akbar was playing with two other children near his home on Monday morning.

They chanced upon an abandoned bottle amidst a stack of bricks and fiddled with it triggering the explosion, said police officials.

Akbar was rushed to hospital, but died of injuries.

The remains of the bottle will be analysed, but it appears that the chemical inside was a compound of potassium, they added.

HYDERABAD: One person died of severe burns in a chemical blast that occurred in one of the units of IDL factory located in the Kukatpally industrial area.
B Janardhan (57) was a technician in the IDL unit that manufactures detonators.
"The blast took place at 1.30 p.m where no one except Janardhan is allowed to enter," Kukatpally SI S Pradeep told Express.
Janardhan worked on a specialised machine used for making detonators, police said. During the explosion, a chemical got sprinkled on Janardhan, causing severe burns. However, there was no fire mishap, the police said. "We are yet to ascertain the reasons for the explosion," Pradeep said.
Police have registered a case and are investigating.

HYDERABAD: Two workers were burnt alive while six others suffered serious injuries in a major fire in a chemical factory close to Ongole town in Prakasam district in the late hours of Tuesday. Tension prevailed at the factory on Wednesday when the workers and locals staged protests demanding action against the management for its negligence.

Ramanaiah and Prasad were charred to death in the fire in Bhagiratha chemical factory at Vengamukkapalem near Ongole. While the management claimed that the fire was caused by an electric short-circuit, workers said there was a problem in the safety valve. "Negligence on the part of the management led to the death of two workers," they alleged.

BADALPUR (GREATER NOIDA): A massive fire broke out in a factory producing soaps and chemicals on the Dadri-Ghaziabad highway at Badalpur around 1pm on Wednesday. Cops said the fire soon raged across the entire factory as the chemical drums caught fire, so much so that giant flames and dark smoke could be seen from a kilometer away. "Fifteen fire tenders were rushed to douse the fire and it was brought under control by about 4pm," said Greater Noida fire officer, AR Sharma.

The officer added that a call for help was even sent to neighbouring Noida and Ghaziabad for fire tenders which finally helped douse the fire after it raged for more than three hours. The fire fighting teams were also successful in keeping three tanks, which had chemicals stored in them, from exploding and causing more destruction. "There could have been greater destruction if the tanks had caught fire as there were many buildings in the vicinity of the chemical factory," said Sharma

Ammonia leak: Ammonia gas leaked out of an organic chemistry laboratory at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, opposite Jadavpur University, while five researchers were working inside on Tuesday afternoon. Fire department officers rushed to the spot and entered the groundfloor laboratory and sealed the cylinder from which it had leaked. No one was affected and the laboratory was closed down for the day.

Howrah (WB), July 24 (PTI) Fire broke out in two factories - a paint factory at Shalimar and another in a chemical factory at Salkia area - in Howrah district today but there was no report of any casualty, Fire Brigade sources said. A fire broke out the in the three-storeyed Research and Development building of Berger paints at Swarnamoyee Road at around 6.10 am, company sources said. The company's security staff and other personnel tried to extinguish the flame with their own fire fighting equipment and also informed the local Fire Brigade. At least 12 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and after fighting the blaze for five hours brought the fire under control, Fire Brigade sources said. There was no casualty in the fire, they said. Another fire was reported at a private chemical factory at Salkia area of the district. Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot who brought the blaze under control after three hours of fire fighting, Fire Brigade sources said adding that there was also no report of any casualty in the fire.

Property worth over Rs 5.35 crore was on Thursday gutted in a fire which broke out in a chemical factory at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district, officials said.

The blaze, caused due to a short-circuit, engulfed an adjoining shoe factory and an aromatic oil manufacturing unit, they said.

Fire tenders were rushed from Nalagarh and Baddi and it took over three-and-a-half hours to control the flames, the officials said.

While the chemical factory suffered an estimated loss of Rs five crore, the other units suffered combined loss of Rs 35 lakh, they said.

NAGPUR: An ex-student of Sindhu College and his sister had a lucky escape after a wall collapsed seconds after they moved away from the spot. Sunil Tiwari had gone for his younger sister's admission at Sindhu College at Kaka Tilokchand Marg, Pachpaoli.

The incident happened on Monday morning after Tiwari had parked his bike. The siblings had walked barely a few steps away when a wall on the first floor of the chemistry lab building collapsed.

"The cracking sound alerted us and we turned back to see an eight-feet piece of wall falling on a car and my bike," said Sunil. "We were shocked. If it had happened a few seconds earlier we would have been buried under the debris," he added.

Sunil said that though his bike was not damaged much, the car belonging to a lecturer was completely damaged. He said that despite taking high fees from students, the college management is not providing basic facilities to students.

He said the wall collapse could have injured many students, since this is the place where students queued up to buy prospectus. "Fortunately, today the counter was closed," Sunil said.

Principal B Nag said it was just an accident and college authorities were not responsible for it. "The chemistry lab building is old and since the water tank is on the same floor, the place was moist and hence the wall collapsed partly," he said. He denied Sunil's allegations, claiming that the wall collapsed over the parking lot.

Sehri (Uttar Pradesh), June 22: A major fire broke out at a pesticide-manufacturing factory in Uttar Pradesh's Sehri District on Wednesday, destroying goods worth millions of rupees.

The factory caught fire at around 4.00 a.m. due to a short circuit.

"The fire is massive and due to this the neighbouring building was also damaged and poses a threat now. All residents of the buildings next door have been evacuated," said Kapiv Dev Agrawal, Chairman of the Municipal Corporation.

Several drums containing chemicals and diesel were inside the factory at the time of the fire and that increased the intensity of the flames.

Fire officials are still struggling to control the flames.

No casualties have been reported so

AHMEDABAD: A chemical storagehouse on Sarkhej-Sanand highway caught fire late on Friday night. Firefighting continued for 12 hours as Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) personnel worked round the clock to douse the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby industrial units.

According to AFES officials, they got a call at 11 pm for a fire at Micra Inks Pvt Ltd near Navjivan Hotel. Two vehicles were dispatched to the spot. The vehicles soon reported the intensity of the fire after which a brigade call was issued. A total of three officers and 80 personnel reached the spot with three firefighters and 29 tankers.

"It was an intense fire as the material stored at the godown contained ink and adhesive material which contain alcohol and solvent. We have not been able to ascertain the ignition point of the fire. We believe it could have started due to leakage of material or rise in pressure on the drums due to heat and moisture. The fire started around 11 pm after which it quickly spread to other parts due to the flammability of the stored material," said Rajesh Bhatt, additional chief fire officer of AFES.

CHENNAI: Firemen attempting to douse the flames at a polymer plate processing unit on Anna Salai on Tuesday, who were initially unable to enter the area due to the thick, chemical-filled smoke, could be seen spraying foam through a window from a ladder outside the building.
“The firm stored highly combustible material and that caused the enormous amount of smoke,” said Priya Ravichandran, Divisional Officer (Central) of the Fire & Rescue Services department.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Triplicane) Senthil Kumaran and his team were present to deal with any eventuality, while CoP J K Tripathy arrived around 11.30 am to take stock of the situation. Fire officers said the exact loss of property could not be estimated immediately.
Fingers were pointed at the firm owners for running a “manufacturing unit in a commercial complex”. Other occupants of the building said the firm did not even possess fire extinguishers and the owner had to fetch two from a bank on the first floor.

Jaipur: A 15-year-old girl died along with his father when a fire broke out in an ink manufacturing factory on Baba Harishchandra Marg on Friday.

The factory, operating at the ground floor of a three-storey building, was located in the congested locality.

The deceased's brother Harsh, 12, and neighbour Toshin suffered burn injuries. Two elderly Manmohan and Shikha are also hospitalised due to shock and cardiac arrest following the incident.

The chemical stored at the factory caught fire but it is yet to be ascertained what caused the spark of the chemical.

The district administration which swung into action after the incident had ordered two separate committees to investigate the incident and suggest some solutions for preventing hazardous activities operating in residential and commercial areas.

A major fire broke out in a chemical factory that was packed with inflammable material in Dera Bassi town of Punjab Sunday, officials said. No casualties have been reported. According to fire officials here, the blaze could have been caused by an electrical short-circuit. Dera Bassi in Mohali distri ct is around 15 km from the state capital Chandigarh.
"Around 10 fire extinguisher vans were pressed into service. The fire broke out at 5.30 a.m. and it took over four hours to bring it under control. The presence of highly inflammable material in the factory's godown made our work difficult," Fire Officer Avatar Singh told IANS Sunday.

Nagpur, May 19 (IANS) At least four people were critically injured in a major fire that broke out following a blast at an explosives factory near Nagpur in Maharashtra, police said here Thursday.

"The fire broke out following a chemical blast in Dhaga village premises of AMA Industries that manufactures explosives," an official from Kalmeshwar police station told IANS.

According to an eyewitness, the entire factory building has collapsed due to the blast that took place at one of the chemical tankers lodged at the factory.

Police, however, said they were looking into the exact cause of the fire and awaiting more details.

A truck carrying chemicals caught fire at Chandani chowk early on Thursday. Two firemen were injured in the extinguishing operation. Traffic on both the sides of the highway was disrupted for nearly three-and-a-half hours.

Fire brigade officers said the incident took place around 4 am. “

“The truck was carrying metal containers of acrylic polymer, hydrogen peroxide, phosphoric acid, zinc chloride and calcium chloride. There were also some bundles of ropes and utensils in the truck,” said Prabhakar Umratkar, a station officer with the fire brigade.

He added, “The incident came to light after some of the passengers in the vehicle following the truck saw fumes coming out. We reached the spot in 10 minutes after we got the call. It took about two hours for our 20 member of fire brigade team to bring the fire under control. We had to be extra cautious while extinguishing the fire. Two of the firemen suffered minor injuries.” The traffic on both the sides was dirupted, he said.

Two fires, including a major one at a chemical product storage facility located in outer Delhi's Pehladpur Bangar area, broke-out on Thursday afternoon, fire officials said. The blaze at the chemical godown, the cause of which is yet to be ascertained, occurred at 3.10pm and at least 30 fire tenders


were dispatched to douse it. At the end of a five-hour fire-fighting operation, fire officials claimed no casualties were reported.
"The facility is spread over 1,000 square yards and serves as a storage-cum-decanting area. It is under control and has been contained," said AK Sharma, director, Delhi Fire Services (DFS).

The second fire incident was reported from an apparel showroom located in south Delhi's bustling South Extension Part 2 at 12.10pm. According to DFS officials, the incident occurred when a motorcycle parked adjacent to the retail showroom caught fire.

One person was killed and 20 injured in a major fire in Uran, Navi Mumbai, following an explosion in a container yard on Wednesday afternoon. Of the 20, six were injured seriously, while the others sustained minor injuries.  The incident occurred around 2pm at Maersk’s Container Freight Stat ion (CFS) Annex in Navghar village. The CFS is a storage place for imported consignments, brought in containers after they arrive at JNPT.
“There was a chemical combustion in one of the plastic drums, which resulted in an explosion that could be heard several kilometres away. The fire then spread to the other containers, which also had chemicals in them. More than 35 containers must have been destroyed in the fire,” said Mohan Naik, station officer, City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd.

Naik added that they were not aware which chemicals were stored there, as the authorities have not informed them yet. 
More than 15 fire tenders were used to douse the fire. However, fire brigade officials could control it by late evening. “Though the fire is under control now, we don’t know how long it will take us to douse it,” said Naik.

VADODARA: Traffic on Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressway was affected after a tanker carrying an inflammable chemical overturned on the highway in the early hours of Monday. Traffic had to be diverted to the national highway eight (NH-8) in the wake of the incident.

The tanker had overturned on the expressway around 2.30 am disrupting traffic there. It is believed that a snag developed in the front wheel of the tanker while it was moving on the Ahmedabad-Vadodara lane of the highway. The driver lost control and the tanker overturned.

Fearing that the chemical in the tanker was an organic solvent that could catch fire, the Vadodara fire brigade was called around 3.30 am. While fire tender was kept at the spot, attempts to put the tanker back on its wheels and remove it from the roads were started.

Kanpur, May 2 (PTI) One person died today and two others were admitted in serious condition after they inhaled poisonous gas in an illegal chemical godown here, police said. Gokul(18) died on the way to hospital, while Arun Kumar (18) and Hamid (20) were admitted in serious condition, the police said. They were working in an illegal chemical godown, in Raipurva area of the city, the police said, adding that today morning when they went inside godown of the factory to do some cleaning of drums, in which some chemicals are stored, gas from one of the drums leaked and they fainted. Ajay Gupta, owner of the factory was arrested, and help of fire brigade was taken to control the leak, they said. Nature of the chemical and the gas is not known as of now, the police added.

MADURAI: Two men were killed and four seriously injured when some chemical mixture exploded in a fireworks unit near Sivakasi in south Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. The accident occurred when the factory foreman went into the storage room where the chemicals were stored and opened the sacks to distribute it to the workers to make the pieces of fireworks, police said.

The fireworks unit, owned by R Kanagavel, is located at Narikudi near Sivakasi. The workers had reported for duty as early as 7am. At around 7.30am, five of them had gone to the storage room to receive the chemicals for mixing. Foreman Shiva (33) was opening the chemical cans in the room when there was a loud explosion and two men Irulandi (37) of Thiruvedapuram and Chelladurai (28) of Subramaniapuram were charred to death instantly.

Two persons were killed and five others injured today when a fire broke out in a fireworks factory at Nathikudi near here, police said.

Police said the fire broke out due to friction when two workers were carrying ‘mixed-chemical’ substances from the factory’s godown to the manufacturing sheds.

Five other workers were seriously injured in the fire, which was extinguished by fire personnel, and have been admitted to hospital.

Sivakasi is famous for its cracker manufacturing units.

KANPUR: Property worth lakhs of rupees was reduced to ashes in a fire that broke out on Sunday night in an ink factory in Dada Nagar Industrial area. There were no casualties. Firemen had to face hardships in dousing the flames as explosions took place in the chemicals stocked in the factory.

Around six fire tenders from various fire stations were rushed to the site. The fire may have been caused by a short-circuit, sources said.

The main shed and other adjoining structures and fixtures and the machinery turned into smouldering rubble, with the concrete building also developing cracks at several places.

Goods worth Rs 40 lakh were destroyed as a major fire broke out in the warehouse of a chemical factory in Meerut on Wednesday, police said. No casualties have been reported. The fire engulfed the warehouse of Chahat Chemicals in Brahmapuri area, following which six fire tenders were pressed into ser
vice.

"The fire spread within no time as it came in contact with drums containing chemical adhesives, primarily used for manufacturing sports goods," police inspector Alok Sharma said in Meerut, some 450 km from Lucknow.

"The situation is under control and the flames would soon be doused completely," he added.

A major fire today broke out at a chemical factory on Kanpur destroying property worth several lakh rupees, officials said.

The blaze engulfed the ink and colour factory at the Dadanagar Industrial area at Panki at around 4.00am, superintendent of police (city) Kushhar Saurabh said, adding some chemical drums kept at the factory also exploded due to the fire.

As the blaze started to spread to other parts of the industrial area, atleast 16 fire tenders were pressed and after several hours the blaze was bought under control, Saurabh said.

Nobody was injured in the incident but chemical worth several lakh rupees was destroyed in the blaze, he said.

Due to the explosions the firemen faced problems in bringing the blaze under their control, chief fire officer, KP Singh said, adding the cause of the fire is being ascertained.

Two workers were charred to death in a fire at Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) plant at Bollarum in Medak district on Thursday night. The fire broke out in the material-handling lift area at G Block in the unit's chemical manufacturing facility at Bolarum at 10.50 pm on Thursday night. The deceased, K Govind Rao, 34, of Srikakulam district and D Keshava, 24, of Vizianagaram district were casual workers, police said. Both were residents of Lakshminagar, Bollarum.

Meanwhile, DRL officials said the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained as immediate shut down of the G Block was carried out for safety reasons. The fire was contained within the host area and was subsequently put out by the plant personnel using the fire fighting equipment, the official said. Police have registered a case under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) against the DRL management, the officer added.


This is the second fire incident at the pharma major's plant in the past three months. Two DRL employees were killed in a fire mishap in December last. According to a senior police officer, Govind Rao and Keshava were shifting materials in the lift attached to Unit I when electrical sparks led to the blaze which spread rapidly. The two got stuck in the lift and were burnt to death.

HYDERABAD: A major fire erupted in a chemical solvent godown, said to be an unauthorised one, in Jeedimetla yesterday. There were no casualties or injuries reported but the property loss is suspected to run into several lakhs of rupees, police and fire services personnel said.
They added that they are yet to establish who were running the godown illegaly.
The fire took place in Ram Reddy Nagar near the Jeedimetla Industrial Development Area (IDA). According to officials, the fire might have broken out due to a short circuit or when the huge quantity of solvents that were stored there fell on the ground during shifting. “It was a small godown but huge quantity of highly inflammable solvents were stored in it,” an official said.
The fire control room was alerted around 1.30 p.m and one fire tender each from Jeedimetla, Sanathnagar and Moula Ali rushed to the place.
They battled for more than five hours to bring the flames under control as thick smoke emanated from the godown adding to the difficulties of the fire fighters.

DOMBIVLI: Two persons were killed and three injured in a fire at the Gharda Chemicals Ltd, MIDC, in Dombivli, on Thursday.

Thirty workers were in the pesticide manufacturing unit's plant 4 when there was a huge explosion at 1.45 pm. Helpers G R Rathod and R V Pardeshi succumbed on the spot due to 100% burn injuries, while Dattatre Parul, Nilesh Madvi and Mahesh Tarade were taken to Hambarde hospital with burn injuries. Parul is in a serious condition.

The fire brigade control room, which got a call around 1.45 pm, sent nine engines which took around 45 minutes to reach due to heavy traffic.

It took two hours for the fire brigade, along with help from experts from the company, to douse the flames at Gharda, one of the biggest chemical units in Thane district.

A Major fire broke out at a chemical factory in Vatva GIDC area on Monday morning. No casualty was reported.

Bright Dyes and Chemicals is located in GIDC Phase II, and owned by Sanjay Patel and Ashok Prajapati, who allegedly fled along with the staff soon after fire broke out with a series of blasts, said a Fire Brigade official. The official added that the people nearby informed them about the incident around 10.30 am.

Chief fire officer M F Dastoor and his deputy Rajesh Bhatt said they suspect that the factory was functioning without obtaining explosives licence and that is why the owners fled and did not contact the authorities after the mishap.

Malfunctioning of some equipment is believed to be the reason behind the fire, but the exact cause is yet to be ascertained.

HALDIA: Coulds of smoke hung in the air at Haldia town all through Monday with scary fireballs shooting out of the Haldia Dhansiri Petrochem and Tea Ltd since noon after a major fire broke out in the plastic manufacturing unit. Worse, the chemical tanks at a stone's throw from the plastic godown are getting hot and may catch fire anytime. There has been no casualty though.

The fire broke out around noon while plastic granules were being carried to the plant. Fire officials said a short circuit had triggered it. Initially, company employees tried to fight the flames with outdated fire extinguishers, failing which employees of the neighbouring units came with whatever they had. According to locals, the fire engines reached an hour late.

When the fire tenders exhausted their own stock of water, firemen could not find source of water within the compound. They had to source water from the villages.

COIMBATORE: A major fire broke out in a chemical factory at Sengalipalayam near Periyanaickenpalayam in the city outskirts on Saturday morning. The three-storeyed chemical factory and about 1.5 tonnes of adhesive chemical manufactured at the factory were destroyed in the blaze.

Around 4am on Saturday, four workers at the factory noticed an electric short circuit near the containers where the chemical adhesives were stored. The short circuit triggered a fire in the factory and the adhesives blew up.

About 50 staff of the Fire and Rescue Services fought the blaze for over two hours. But the chemicals and most part of the building were destroyed. "If the blaze had spread to neighbouring buildings, it would have been a major tragedy," a police official said.

A fireman was injured while dousing a blaze in a chemical storehouse in Jajmau industrial area on Wednesday afternoon.

The employees had a narrow escape as materials worth several lakhs of rupees were gutted in the fire that began at Bihari Chemical Store and soon spread to the adjoining Anik Tannery.

Employees of the chemical store claimed that a short circuit caused the fire, but district authorities said the cause was yet to be ascertained.

Shiv Singh, the fireman who started suffocating in the fumes emitted by the chemicals, was admitted in the intensive care unit of Ursula Horsman Memorial Hospital. His condition has been declared to be stable.

a chemical factory ‘Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Limited’ at SPICOT Industrial Estate, Tamil Nadu has lead to the hospitalization of more than 120 people. Fire broke out at the stores of the factory where chemical bromine and hydrochloric acid had been stocked, leading to poisonous fumes emanating from the unit on Monday night. Fire brigade personnel neutralized the gas using carbonated water.

KANPUR: Property and goods worth over Rs 1 crore were gutted in a major fire which broke out in a chemical godown located inside a tannery in Jajmau, here on Wednesday. The fire resulted in chaos in Galla Godam area of Jajmau as flames were visible even as far as 2 km away from the factory.

It took 24 fire tenders, including that of Air Force and Ordinance factory, to douse the flames, with the fire having spread to adjacent lanes. A series of blasts inside the godown made difficult the task of fire department personnel and it was only after over four hours that the fire was doused.

Earlier, fire broke out in the chemical godown of Bihari Tannery at 3.30pm. A large quantity of extremely combustible chemicals, including formic acid and citric acid, were stored here, a fire department official told TOI. The fire was first spotted by tannery employees and after their efforts to control it proved futile, they alerted the fire control room. Fire spread swiftly in the vicinity after acid spilled on roads. Fearing that fire may engulf the nearby houses and factories, fire officials and police evacuated several

A fire broke out in a chemical factory on Saturday in Alwar's industrial area causing loss of property, police said.

Two LPG cylinders exploded due to the fire which created panic in the area, however, no casualty was reported.

Several machines and equipments got gutted but the fire was brought under control before it could reach the drums of chlorine that were in the factory.