Chembur BPCL blast: We thought it's a quake, says Resident

Residents staying in the vicinity of the Bharat petroleum plant along Mahul road were left shaken, quite literally, such was the intensity of the blast.

Anita Mittal, a resident of Manish Vijay society, which overlooks the plant, first thought that an earthquake had hit, as she could feel her entire building shake, accompanied by an ear-splitting blast.

"I was having my lunch when I heard the blast and our building shook. I thought ti was either an earthquake or a cloudburst. Fearing the worst, we rushed outside our house and saw residents of all the six wings of the society had gathered in the open, thinking it's an earthquake," she said. Mittal added that a thick cloud of smoke began emanating from the BPCL plant soon, and it was then they realised that there was a blast at the plant.

Many residents, upon realising that the blast occurred at the plant, were clueless about what to do next. "Almost everyone rushed back to their houses and shut doors and windows thinking about a possible chemical leak. Within 15 minutes the entire road was blocked so we could not even leave our houses," said Manohar Shah, another local, who said the incident has now provoked him to consider how to save themselves in case there is really a chemical leak. He realised it is important to shift all these dangerous plants away from the residential areas.

Meanwhile, Seema Choudhary, another local, said: "We have a cement roof; due to the impact of the vibrations, a part of it fell on my mother's hand, injuring her," she said.