VISAKHAPATNAM: People of Tanam and other nearby villages of the Pharma City, who moved to safer places following major fire in Visakha Solvents, spent sleepless night on Monday. They returned home only after normalcy was restored on Tuesday morning.
R Naidu, a villager of Tanam, said he heard a blast from the solvents plant at 10.40 pm. On seeing the raging fire from the plant, he along with his family members ran for nearly 2 km for safety. Krishnamurthy, another villager, said most of the people in villages surrounding the Pharma City, are living in constant fear due to frequent industrial mishaps in Parawada. Two industrial accidents occurred on consecutive days in December last year. On June 29, a mishap occurred at Sainor Life Sciences.
The fire in Visakha Solvents was huge and they never saw a mishap of that magnitude till now, he said. Visakha Solvents, set up in 2010, has 50 employees.
About 15 employees were on night duty when the mishap occurred. There are five columns (reactors) storing waste methanol solvent collected from various pharma units in Parawada. Fire broke out in one of the columns and at that time, chemists Mallesh, Manoj and Srinivas and security guard Chinna Rao were present near it.
Mallesh sustained burns in the mishap. Srinivas was found dead on Tuesday morning. The sudden rain helped the fire services personnel douse the flames fast and the blaze was finally brought under control at 5 am on Tuesday.