Chemicals blamed for godown fire
2 min readPatna: Chemicals loaded in a truck are to blame for Tuesday’s fire in the transport godown at Pahari More under Bypass police station in Patna in which two persons died and four others were injured.
The two who were charred to death in the blast have been identified as Jitendra Choudhary and Mahesh Prasad. Both are residents of Ashok Nagar under Kankarbag police station in Patna. The two were cycle-cart pullers and had come to Transport Nagar in the morning .
The injured have been also identified as Muneem Mallik, 25, a resident of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, Pradeep Rai, 55, a resident of Juraopur and Mahesh Rai of Mirzapur in Raghopur area of Vaishali district. Pradeep’s condition is critical. He has been admitted to the Apollo Burn hospital in Agamkuan area of Patna City while the other injured persons have been admitted to I-con Hospital in Patna City.
Bypass police station house officer (SHO) Shashi Shekhar Chouhan said, prima facie, the accidents happened when a truck carrying chemicals from Delhi went inside the godown and the chemical drum exploded and caught fire around 9am. The SHO said investigations are on. He said a forensic team will probe the blast to find out which chemical was loaded on the truck. Patna City sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Rajesh Raushan said investigations are on.
“The investigation report has not been submitted yet, but prima-facie it seems that the chemicals triggered the fire. The chemical had not been handled in a proper way,” the SDM said.
A total of 10 fire tenders from Patna City, Kankerbag, Sachivalaya and Danapur were pressed into service to douse the flames. It took almost five hours to bring the situation under control. Eight ambulances were also kept on standby to admit those affected to hospital.
Senior police and administrative officials including Patna district magistrate (DM) Kumar Ravi had reached the spot to take stock of the situation.
The DM announced ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to next of kin of the two dead persons and directed Patna City sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Rajesh Raushan to provide treatment to the injured free of cost and also asked him to conduct an inquiry and submit a report at the earliest.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
