VADODARA, Dec 2: Three workers were asphyxiated to death and at least 19 others suffered lung and eye injuries when a vaporiser full of liquid sulphur dioxide gas exploded at the Rs 150-crore Transpek Industry Limited here early on Wednesday. An inquiry has been ordered into the incident.The blast at the chemical unit - located 10 km off Vadodara near Atladra village - was apparently sparked by a snag in a five-metre-tall, 2,500-litre vessel containing the poisonous gas. Eyewitnesses said a thick cloud of the gas enveloped the entire distillation section of the factory, triggering panic among the 93 workers on duty on the night shift.About two dozen workers were reportedly trapped in the melee for a short period of time. Experts said casualties could have been much higher if the unit had been a walled-in area.Though help arrived within half-an-hour of the mishap, three workers died on the way to the SSG Hospital; 19 were undergoing treatment for their injuries - mostly chest and eye-related - at the time of going to press. All of them were reported to be out of danger.According to medical experts, the casualties - Raisinh Kavarbhai Baria, 41, of Kalali Road, Prabhat A Padhiyar, 30, of Ekbalpura, Padra taluka and Prabhakar N Patil of Khandesh, Maharashtra - all inhaled sulphur dioxide, which converts the haemoglobin in the blood into met-haemoglobin, killing the blood cells' oxygen-carrying capacity.Doctors said anyone exposed to the gas would be first affected in the brain, before being completely disoriented and slipping into unconsciousness. The three workers died within 15 minutes of the blast, they said, though the post mortem report is not available as yet.Such was the pressure inside the vessel that it split into two; the top portion flew off to hit the iron-grill terrace 20 metres above. But Transpek executive director Paresh Saraiya ruled out chances of any human error or sabotage being responsible for the accident, maintaining that it had been caused by a rupture in the vaporiser. Initial inquiries, he said, indicated that one of four factors could be responsible for the mishap: Either the vessel's welded joints had become weak or the vessel's plate thickness had lessened. Damage to the vessel's lead-bonding or a choke-up of the vent line could not be ruled out either, Saraiya said.Promising immediate and more regular checks of the factory equipment, Saraiya said the company would also go in for radiography testing on the other four vaporisers, besides the statutory hydraulic and ultrasonic thickness tests.He said the kin of each of the deceased would receive around Rs 7 lakhs; the compensation package for the injured has not yet been decided.Talking to Express Newsline, Senior Inspector of Factories, Vadodara, B P Parmar said, ``We have initiated an investigation of the incident, and the factory will not be allowed to operate for the couple of days the inquiry takes.'' The Transpek unit, he said, was regularly inspected being one of the 67 major accident hazard factories of the district.Incidentally, this is the second major accident in a Transpek factory in 30 years, though the 1994 reactor blast in the Ekalbara unit claimed no lives.When contacted, District Collector Anil Mukim said, ``What has happened has happened. I am now looking at the future to see how we can establish the right balance between development and safety. As the first step, I think we will survey the condition of the chemical units' equipment across the district. More public awareness is also necessary''.The Makarpura police have registered a case under Section 174 of CrPC for accidental death in the case.
