Now,fire kills four in MIDC

“The unit was functioning as a garment factory to colour,dye and print garments. More than 70 people were working in the unit in the night shift when the fire broke out,” said Sudhakar Kulkarni,Station Officer Kalyan-Dombivali Fire Brigade.

Over 200 people work on the

250-sq m premise of Vinayak Textile in two shifts.

“We received the call around 3.45 am and rushed to the spot. The most difficult part was preventing the flames from spreading to other manufacturing units,” said Kulkarni.

More than 12 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. While the fire was doused within two hours,the cooling operations were carried out for over 10 hours.

The deceased,who were contract labourers in the garment factory,have been identified as Kuldeep Moili (35),Nandkumar Jha (50),Maniyuddin Mia (64) and Rama Prasad Tiwari (46). Their bodies were charred,said another Fire Brigade official.

The injured have been admitted to Shivam Hospital in Dombivali. “While many of them suffered burns of various degrees,most of them are experiencing breathing difficulty as they were rescued when the flames had already engulfed the building,” said a fire official.

The cause of the fire is suspected to be the overheating of an oil pipeline used to process garments. “A fluid oil pipeline,which is used for processing and dying,got overheated and the oil started leaking from it. The oil came into contact with a furnace,which started the fire,” said Kulkarni.

The MIDC phase 2 area in Dombivali houses over 150 small industrial units such as chemical factories,paper-making units,machine and electronic appliance units.

The state government is responsible for conducting at least one industrial safety audit at such units every year. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board also has to conduct regular audits to ensure environment and health safety.