Gas leak could have been averted, say survivors

Lying on his bed at home, Raghunath Pingua asks: “Phir kal wahi hoga.” Pingua, a Bokaro Steel Plant employee who survived yesterday’s gas leak, thinks the accident could have been prevented. He feels his colleagues — Shiv Nath Singh and Nageshwar Manjhi — could have survived if the BSL management had trained its staff not to attempt rescues without wearing an air purifier mask.

Singh, an ambulance driver, was at a hospital, two km from the plant, when the leak occurred. Manjhi, a contract labourer, was inside the plant near blast furnace where a pipe carrying a poisonous mix of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide began to leak around 8 pm.

Eighteen employees walking near the pipe inhaled the leaking gases and fell to the floor unconscious. Singh reached the spot with his ambulance a few minutes later.

Story continues below this ad

He recalls: “I saw Shiv Nath and Manjhi. Both of them were in the process of rescuing us. But they probably inhaled the gas excessively and fell down before I lost consciousness.”

Pingua is among 13 employees to have regained consciousness and be released from the hospital. “The rest five were out of danger,” BSL Manager (Communications) B K Thakur said.