Factory Blast: Adjoining buildings, factories take hit

Kishan Shinde’s six-month-old grandson sustained multiple severe head injuries as a shard of glass from a living room window of the family’s first floor apartment near Probace enterprises hit his head. The baby suffered several stitches and was declared to be out of danger by Thursday evening. The blast in a chemical factory in the Shivaji Udyag Nagar in Dombivali’s industrial estate Thursday morning, proved injurious not only to workers of the factory, but also for those in adjoining factories and nearby residential buildings.

Mr Shinde himself suffered multiple head injuries and was rushed to the hospital by neighbours. “There was a loud ringing noise in my ear and everything was shaking. All I could think of was to evacuate my family from there, before I even realised blood was trickling down my head,” he said.

Mr Shinde is a resident of Pushpam Villa situated right at the boundary of the MIDC phase II area. The building, which houses 24 apartments, was the closest to the blast, and suffered maximum damage. Most residents sustained major cuts due to glass shards from exploding windows. Five children between the age group of 8 and 13, who were playing on the street, were also hit by the glass pieces.

Shivaraman, also a resident of Pushpam Villa, said, “We heard three explosions, felt an immediate heat wave, before everything around us began to tremble and fall to the ground. A windowpane came flying towards me but missed my head by inches. The wooden doors blew up and all metal grills melted.”

As the impact of the blast was felt within a radius of 1.5 km, traffic on both sides of the blast site was severely affected, as the road was covered with glass pieces.

Roopali Kshirsagar, a resident of Mohan Plaza, another building close to the blast site said, “We picked up our children and rushed downstairs. All the people were out on the road and the vehicles had stopped, so there was no place to run away from the building.” However, residents said auto rickshaw drivers rose to the occasion and quickly took all the injured to nearby hospitals.

Sukant Patel, a resident of Agar Society, said, “My whole house is destroyed and I do not even have the insurance to recover the cost. We have just bolted the main gate of the building so that no one can steal anything.”