“Pressure increased inside the blast furnace no. 8 owing to material slippage and got released through the drain pot of hydraulic U seal that is installed for such purposes,” a statement issued by the plant said. One loco operator and two shunting staff, who were inside the locomotive that was positioned below the U seal, got affected by the release of gas,” the statement added.
“Gas monitors installed in the area also signaled presence of gas. Two other RITES officials were also exposed to the toxic gas when they tried to rescue their fellow employees. The affected people were immediately taken to the main medical post inside the plant,” the statement added.
All the five persons were thereafter admitted to the Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Hospital & Research Centre, Bhilai. While one of them is still in the ICU, the other five have been shifted to the ward. Later, the official of BSP’s the Energy Management Department, who was engaged with his team to attend to the gas leakage, was also admitted to hospital after he complained of headache, the statement said, adding “all the affected persons are out of danger now.” The leakage of gas was later stopped and the situation brought under control, the statement said.
The affected employees have been identified as Abhishek Anand, K Nagraj, Balkrishna, Santosh Kumar and Kalidas, all belonging to RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) and BSP’s Deputy General Manager Rajesh Kumar, the statement said.
This is the third accident at Bhilai Steel Plant following one in June 2019 which affected three people and a major fire at the Coke Oven Battery No.11 during a scheduled maintenance activity in October 2018 in which 12 people lost their lives.
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