Hyderabad: As many as 40 barrels of benzene chloride, para benzene hydroxide, methanol, solvents and other chemicals worth crores were gutted in a fire after a chemical reactor exploded in a godown cum workplace of Salicylate & Chemicals, a nail polish remover manufacturing company, at IDA-Mallapur near Nacharam.
The incident occurred at 9am and since it was still early, only the watchman received minor burns. When the workers arrived in the morning, they saw smoke from the chemical godown where the company management had dumped nearly 40 barrels of chemicals on Thursday evening and ran away.
By the time fire tenders from Nacharam and Cherlapalli arrived, the chemical barrels had started exploding. By 10 am, the fire department had brought in seven more fire tenders from nearby fire stations. Locals from surrounding areas panicked as 200-feet high smoke and almost 30-feet high flames were seen emanating as the barrels exploded.
Malkajgiri ACP M. Ravichandan Reddy said “we shifted locals and workers from neighbouring factories. Almost 80 per cent of public from HCL Colony and K.L. Reddy Nagar were moved to safe places. The barrels made by steel led to intense explosions.
Cherlapalli fire station officer Mr V. Shekar Reddy said that as the chemicals also contained Benzene, the flames could not be controlled with water. “Trying to control the fire, we concentrated on saving neighbouring factories. Initially, the left part of the store room caught fire and by the afternoon, another godown located on the right side of the factory caught fire,” he said.
