THANE :
AS MANY as eight persons
were killed and more than 60
others injured following an
explosion at a chemical factory in Maharashtra’s Thane
district on Thursday afternoon, officials said.
As a boiler exploded at
Amudan Chemicals located
in Phase 2 of Dombivli MIDC
area around 1.40 pm, the
impact of the explosion and
the resultant blaze affected
adjacent factories and houses, they said.
The affected chemical factory produced food colours
and uses peroxides that are
highly reactive and unstable
chemicals that can cause violent explosions under certain
conditions, the National
Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) said.
The blast was so loud that
it was heard a kilometre away,
an eyewitness said. Glass windows of adjoining buildings
cracked while many houses in
the vicinity were damaged,
officials said.
Thick clouds of smoke
could be seen hovering over
the factory. Six men and two
women were killed in the incident but their bodies were
charred beyond recognition,
said Yasin Tadvi, chief of the
disaster management cell of the Thane Municipal
Corporation. As per the preliminary information, those
killed were working in neighbouring factories,
Maharashtra Industries
Minister Uday Samant said.
The state Industries and
Labour Department issued a
statement saying the boiler
in the factory was not registered under the India Boiler
Regulations, 1950.
Terming the incident as
horrible, Chief Minister
Eknath Shinde said some
more people are feared
trapped in the factories
around the chemical factory. “Our priority is to rescue
those people. Eight persons
have lost their lives and more
than sixty were injured,” he
said from the factory site.
The Government has taken a serious note of the incident and has decided to categorise the industries as A, B
and C in terms of the hazards they pose. “All most hazardous industrial units falling
under the red category will
be immediately shut across
the state.”