Hyderabad, May 17: Four workers were charred to death while three others suffered severe burns after a reactor exploded in an unauthorised intermediary drug manufacturing unit at Jeedimetla on Sunday.
Firefighters and police personnel rescued eight workers trapped in the unit and put out the fire after battling for more than four hours.
Owner of Durga Enterprises, the company running the unit, Bhupathi Raju Subba Raju from Bhimavaram absconded soon after the incident. Plant incharge K Narasimha Raju and production manager N Venkat Reddy were arrested.
According to police, the reactor burst around 8 a.m. and spewed chemicals all over the place. Within minutes, the entire unit went up in flames. Luckily, though there are 10 other reactors inside, none exploded. But four workers, who were working near the reactor, were charred to death. Some others managed to come out alive safely. Nine fire tenders were pressed into service besides several water tankers t o extinguish the flames. Firefighters had a hard time tackling the inferno as hazardous and highly combustible chemicals were stored in the unit.
The deceased were identified as Swamy ( 3 0 ) , an operator, Narasimha Swamy (28), a supervisor and two workers, Raju (26) and Ramana (25).
The condition of three of the injured, Rambabu, Sriramulu and Venkateshwar Reddy, is said to be serious as they suffered more than 60 per cent burns. Alwal zone DCP M Shiva Prasad, in a letter to the Director of Factories, recommended action against the company for running the unit.
--Agencies
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