Morena gas leak incident: The workers had inhaled toxic gas emanating from a tank at the food factory in Morena’s Jarerua area.
Five workers lost their lives as a result of inhaling poisonous gas emanating from a tank at a food factory in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district on Wednesday, prompting officials to carry a frantic rescue operation and evacuate the facility. The incident occurred at the factory named ‘Sakshi Food Product’ in the Jarerua area of the district, the officials said.
Following the incident, the authorities and the fire brigade arrived at the accident site to take control of the situation. The bodies of all five deceased labourers were sent for post-mortem examination.
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Gas started emanating from a tank at the factory around 11 am and two labourers entered it to check it, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Bhupendra Singh Kushwaha told PTI. They took ill after inhaling the gas. Subsequently, three more labourers got affected, he said.
The affected labourers were rushed to the district hospital but were declared dead by a doctor.
The deceased were identified as brothers Ramavtar Gurjar (35), Ramnaresh Gurjar (40) and Veersingh Gurjar (30), all residents of Tiktoli village; Ganesh Gurjar (40) and Girraj Gurjar (28). After the incident, district officials got the factory vacated and further probe was on.
The factory makes processed tutti frutti and sugar-free chemicals used in food products. Factory owner Vipin Goyal said these labourers were engaged in cleaning the tank so that papaya and other ingredients can be immersed in water for a long time to make tutti frutti, gulkand and sugar-free powder. “I am unable to understand how this incident took place today,” he said.
District collector Ankit Asthana sent a team led by tehsildar to seal the factory, officials said. A team of revenue, food and industries department has been constituted by the collector to probe the incident, they said.
Morena is located 39 km from the prominent MP city Gwalior.