Chennai: A 32-year-old man died and 11 others, two of them women, suffered injuries in an industrial accident after a paint-drying oven burst at a factory at Sipcot industrial area in Sriperumbudur on Monday. Two officials of the company were arrested later in the day, the police said.
The deceased was identified as K. Abhishek of Vivekananda Nagar, in Vellore. He worked as a machine operator in the unit. Around 200 persons worked in three shifts in the private automobile spares painting unit, the police said.
Around 10.30 am on Monday, Abishek, after starting the first two of the drying ovens in the unit for operation, went on to operate the third and fourth units, when all of a sudden the oven burst, police investigations revealed.
The spare parts of automobiles, after being dipped in paint, are dried in these ovens.
Abishek was thrown to the ground in the impact and suffered injuries on his head and body.
Due to the blast, the asbestos roof and glass doors inside broke and inflicted minor injuries on other workers there.
The Sriperumbudur police rushed there on information and moved Abishek and others to a private medical facility nearby, where Abishek was declared brought dead.
Other workers suffered minor injuries and are out of danger. They would be discharged in two days, the police quoted the hospital authorities as saying.
“The unit had opened on Monday after the weekend holidays. The blast happened within minutes of the start of day’s operations. We suspect an electrical short circuit to be the reason behind the blast,” a police officer attached to the Sriperumbudur police station said.
The police have arrested two officials of the company on charges of causing death due to negligence.
The Sriperumpudur police registered a case and arrested Jaya Kumar, maintenance manager in the factory, and Siva Natarajan, a human resources manager of the company.
