Reactor blast kills 2, hurts 5
It took almost two hours to clear the smoke
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-29 06:42 GMT
Visakhapatnam: A reactor explosion left two workers dead and five others seriously injured at the Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City (JNPC) in Parwada area here on Monday afternoon. The deceased were Harish Kumar, 28, shift-in charge at Sainor Life Sciences Pvt Ltd and native of Srikakulam, and Srinivas, 50, a resident of Kasimkota area here. Activists said safety aspects are not being taken care of at JNPC, where at least one accident took place every month.
The injured were SK Nookaraju, Gangadhar Rao, G. Raju, E. Shekar and B. Kondal Rao. Rao is reported to be critical with 50 per cent burns. Harish was a permanent employee in the unit and the rest of the injured were contract employees. Inspector of factories, P. Chinna Rao, said the incident occurred due to high pressure, caused by some miscalculation in the chemical composition.
Eyewitness said the blast was very severe as the wall on one side of the building collapsed and the entire building was engulfed in thick black smoke. Six fire tenders were pressed into service and it took almost two hours to clear the smoke.