3 dead, 15 hurt in fire at Boisar

Mumbai: Three workers died while 15 others were injured in a fire caused by an explosion in the Novaphene chemical factory at the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) located at Boisar in Palghar district at 11.38 pm on Thursday. The affected area is close to the Tarapur Atomic Power Station.

The fire then spread to five other factories,  Unimax, Prachi, Arti, Bharat Rasayan and Darbari. It took nine fire engines five hours to control the fire after which cooling operations began. The deceased have been identified as Pintu Kumar Gautam, Alok Nath and Janu Adaria.  

The MIDC police is trying to locate the owners of the factories. It is probing the cause of the fire and has filed an accidental death report, said sources. No FIR has been registered so far. The fire began after there were three blasts in the factory followed by a reactor explosion, which was heard around 8-10 kilometres away from the site. Shutters, window panes and a computer were destroyed in the premises of the companies that were in the vicinity.

Deputy chief fire brigade officer, Milind Ugale, said, “The first blast had occurred in the reactor of one of the chemical companies. Thereafter, three strong blasts occurred due to the presence of big chemical storage cans.”

Mr Ugale added, “The cooling operation is ongoing and we can’t deny more deaths in the Novaphene chemical factory,” he added.

There are around 1,100 chemical plants and additional 400-500 other factories in MIDC Tarapur. “No person from the Novaphane company has come forward to inform us,” said Prakash Birajdar, senior police inspector of MIDC police.

“The boiler of our company has been badly affected. The computers and ACs of our office are fully destroyed and losses worth `35 lakh have occurred. Lights of the main gates melted,” said Baburajan P. Nair, manager of Unitech Fibre company, which located around the six affected factories.