THRISSUR : Two labourers at a bakery died while trying to clean the blockage in the pipe of a waste tank under the building at Aloor on Wednesday.
The deceased have been identified as Sunil Kumar, 52 of Kuzhikkattussery and Jithesh, 45 of Karoor. The incident happened at the production unit of Royal Bakery at Karoor near Aloor on Wednesday afternoon.
The building has an underground tank to collect water and solid waste formed after the production of bakery items. The tank has only one manhole, which is too narrow for even one person to step in. After a blockage was reported, one of the workers got into it to clean the pipe. After sometime, not getting any response from him prompted his co-worker to enter the manhole. But unfortunately, both collapsed inside the tank.
Following this, the Chalakudy fire force was informed about the incident. Soon, a team of officers led by Assistant Station Officer Santhosh Kumar arrived at the spot.
The bodies of Sunilkumar and Jithesh were recovered by Santhosh Kumar, who got inside the tank with breathing apparatus.
“The tank is about 10 feet in width and 8 feet in depth, which had waste up to 4 feet. Since there was no air pipe or any facility except the manhole, it contained toxic gas which took the lives of two. It is highly dangerous to get into such a tank without proper equipment for protection,” said Santhosh Kumar. The department would submit its report on the incident soon, he added.
Meanwhile, the bakery owner Jopherine Thomas took a stand that he didn’t know about the duo getting inside the tank. The police registered a case for unnatural death and completed the inquest procedures. The postmortem examination of the bodies will be conducted on Thursday.