Explosion at chemical plant leaves 3 dead

Amassive explosion inside the polymer plant of Reliance Industries at Nagothane in neighbouring Raigad district killed three persons and left near 50 persons seriously injured.

The incident took place at Reliance’s IPCL plant, some 100 km from Mumbai, when engineers, technicians and workers were trying to repair a cyclone filter, a critical part of the polymer plant, which had malfunctioned on Thursday night forcing authorities to shut the polymer production.

As the maintenance work of the cyclone filter began, a small explosion took place, followed by a big one seconds later. Three persons, including an electrical engineer, who were in close proximity of the cyclone filter bore the brunt, with engineer Ramdas Shingade’s body blown to bits.

In all, 46 workers, engineers and technicians present in the periphery were injured, eight of them critically. The injured were first taken to Reliance’s hospital on the plant premises and 21 of them were later shifted to Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital at Lodhiwal village, while the rest were shifted to Mumbai. Twenty-one injured have been admitted to Harkisondas Hospital and four to Bhatia hospital.

The blast

The IPCL plant at Nagothane manufactures linear low density polymer (LLD polymer) which is used as raw material to manufacture soft plastic.

The plant has a critical component called cyclone filter where end product polymer granules and extra gases gather before the granules and the gases get separated. This filter got choked on Thursday night and authorities shut down the plant operation.

At 8.30 am, maintenance work on the filter started and nearly 100 persons including workers, engineers, technicians got into act.

According to eye-witnesses, at around 11.15 am a worker saw some flames emerging out of the filter which was followed by a blast. Seconds later, another major blast took place. The asbestos sheets near the filter were shattered and caught fire and acted as missiles. Most workers got splinter injuries due to the asbestos pieces and also sustained burns.

Electrical Engineer Ramdas Shingade, who was the closest to the filter was blown to pieces, while technicians Suresh Pawaskar and Prasad Kakade also died later.

The Reliance plant

Ashok Eknath Nerkar, 44, a technician in the plant for the past 16 years and who was standing a little away from the filter, is among the injured.

“I heard a small blast, but before I realised what had happened, a second explosion took place and a chunk of concrete hit my helmet on the left side. My helmet cracked, my specs shattered and I fell unconscious,” said Nerkar, who is admitted with injuries on his left ear.

Mechanical engineer Sudhakar Barkul, 44, was lucky to escape with burn injuries on his leg and face. He had moved away just 15 seconds before the explosion to work on another machine.