Boisar Fire | It felt like an earthquake: Victims

At around 11.30pm on Thursday night, the locals heard at least 18 blasts from the chemicals units located in the E-Zone of the Boisar MIDC area near Tarapur. Thinking it was an earthquake, the locals rushed out to seek shelter.

Meanwhile, the workers of the chemical manufacturing plant suffered burn and blunt injuries. Initially, five injured workers were rushed to the Vikas Hospital while five others were taken to the Thunga Hospital. Two of the victims who had critical injuries were later shifted to the Thunga hospital in Mira Road. The fire brigade department of Vasai Virar and the MIDC fire brigade recovered three bodies from the location.

One of the injured persons, Kailash Kumar, a native of Madhya Pradesh, had joined the Arti Drugs industrial unit a week back. "We were bifurcating chemical powder when suddenly the blast happened and we could feel the tremors. It was like a high magnitude earthquake but before we realized, the window panes broke and a heat wave injured us," said Kumar.

19-year-old Arvind Vishwakarma from Jharkhand is also severely injured. He said, "I was numb at the time of the incident and was rushed outside the company with the help of other colleagues. I am unable to listen from the left ear."