18 people charred to death at SVS Aqua.
At least 18 people, including 15 women, were charred to death in a major fire that broke out at a mid-size industrial plant at village Urawade in Pirangut, about 16km from Pune, on Monday afternoon.
The fire was reported at around 5 pm from the company located in the Urawade area of Pirangut. It was reported to have been doused by the fire brigade by 6:43 pm. The cooling process has started and the fire brigade has started a sweep of the area to search, rescue, and recover bodies. The Pune rural police are also involved in the rescue and search operation.
All the victims were trapped inside the plant when the fire was caused by a blast in a machine, local revenue authorities said.
The fire occurred at the SVS Aqua Technologies plant, which is into manufacturing, supplying and exporting of air, water and surface treatment chemicals, systems and solutions. Senior police and revenue officials rushed to the site and at least three fire fighting tenders were deployed by the MIDC fire brigade.
The authorities had to break the walls on either end of the plant to gain access inside. However, by this time the blaze had engulfed all the trapped victims, who were mostly locals from the Mulshi taluka.
“I’m on the way there. Our primary goal was to douse the fire which has been done. From what I have been told, there were 17 people trapped in total – 15 women and 2 men – of which 12 have been recovered. However, the bodies are too charred to tell how many of them are men and women. We will know after a medical exam,” said Suhas Diwase, chief executive officer, PMRDA
Nikunj Shah, Director, SVS Aqua, where the fire broke out, said, “The firm is involved in manufacturing chemicals required for purification of water. This chemical is not inflammable and we suspect a short circuit as the cause of the incident. At this point, there are few more workers still trapped inside.”
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