Thane: Blast in chemical factory leaves Dombivli residents traumatised

Mahesh Patel will never forget the sight he witnessed while making tea yesterday. The Dombivli resident saw the window grills of his home bend, and mistook the sight for a bomb blast, before realising that it happened because of multiple explosions that occurred at a chemical factory in the suburb's MIDC Phase II area.

Around 15 fire engines and 10 water tankers were pressed into service at the spot. Pics/Satej Shinde

At 11.45 am, nearly four blasts shook the area. They killed five and injured 129, of which 9 are seriously injured. Sixty-nine have been admitted in the hospital, while the rest are taking first aid. The explosions also brought almost 1,000 residents on the streets as their homes were badly affected by the impact.

According to senior police officials, the blasts were a result of a chemical reaction gone wrong.

The incident occurred in the chemical factory of Probace Enterprises and later spread to another factory as well.

An intensive search of the debris was carried out to find the people trapped inside. Till the time of going to press, Suresh Shinde, Chief Fire Officer of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation said three people were still missing and the search was on for them.

Around 15 fire engines and 10 water tankers were at the spot. Shinde said, "The fire was doused at 3 pm. Our officials were at the spot till the evening as the fire kept rising from time to time. We are still trying to control the fire."

The blast was so huge that its impact was felt even in a radius of two and half kilometers from the site of origin. Some residents said they felt as if an earthquake was coming on, and rushed outside their homes.

Patel, a resident of Puspam Villa, which is 50-meters from the blast site, said, "I was preparing tea and all of a sudden, I heard a huge blast. The window grills in front of me were bent and the plasters came down from the ceiling. At first, I thought it was a bomb blast and we all started leaving the building. Later on, we learnt about the blast [at the factory]."

Jt Commissioner says
Ashutosh Dhumbre, joint commissioner of police, Thane, said, "We have registered a case against the owners of Probace Enterprises for causing death due to negligence and other different sections of the Indian Penal Code. It has been registered on a primary basis and we will further add the names of the supervisor and others who were negligent as well."

According to locals, nearly 100 buildings with almost 1,000 residents and many commercial outlets were affected because of the blast.

The residents are staying in open spaces close to their homes, and various organisations are offering them food. Meanwhile, cops say all the injured and deceased were moved to ICON, AIMS, Shivam, Neptune, and Shashtri Nagar hospitals. The dead bodies were then shifted to Rukmini Bai hospital in Kalyan.

Factory owners missing
Nandan Wakhatkar (32), Sumit Wakhatkar (30) and Snehal Wakhatkar (28) who are the owners of the Probace Enterprises were missing till the time of going to the press.

Shinde said, "The three people are the owner of the firm and are missing. We found that they were present in the chemical factory during the time of the incident. We suspect they would be under the debris and search operation is on as their relatives claimed they were not found in the hospitals."

He added, "In the evening, we received information that they are in the hospital, but they are yet to be confirmed by identification."

MPCB: Not under our purview
A senior official from MPCB said, "We cannot comment much into the issue as this matter is related to Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH). The explosion had taken place in the chemical factory located at Dombivali MIDC, due to some chemical reaction. The subject comes under the purview of DISH as they will do panchanama and are investigation into the issue."

MIDC: Helped control situation
RV Sonje, Chief Engineer, MIDC Dombivali said, "The checking of various permissions and inspections comes under the purview of DISH and they are investigating the issue. We have a fire station at Dombivali MIDC and immediately after the incident, we helped control the situation in the best possible way."

DISH: Will inspect other factories
SP, Kulkarni, joint director of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) of he Maharashtra Labour Department said, "We inspect various chemical factories on a regular basis and it was done in this case as well. We would also be carrying out inspection of other chemical factories in Dombivali."