30-06-2025
First responders take charge as emergency response remains slack
Nearly half an hour after the blast ripped through the manufacturing unit of Sigachi Industries shearing off the roof and sending building debris shooting in a radius of few hundred metres, the first responders were people and workers from the surrounding areas. They dug through brick, mortar and concrete blocks debris to pull out bodies and the injured. There was no ambulance on the site. At 9.48 a.m., a bystander Sai Reddy from Isnapur shot a video showing injured workers with bleeding wounds and torn clothes sitting in a company bus waiting to be transported to a hospital. The bus suffered blast damage including shattered glass and its rear was crushed. As the bus pulled away, one more person was brought out of the factory with four persons holding his limbs, another person was brought out in a makeshift gurney.
It was a replay of what happened after the blaze near Gulzar Houz in Hyderabad where good Samaritans ferried the victims out of the building into waiting stretchers. The survival rate in both the cases was low. While 17 persons died in the blaze near Gulzar Houz, 15 persons died in the blast on Monday.
Sigachi Industries, whose microcrystalline cellulose manufacturing unit blew up, said in its stock market filing: 'The company's occupational health and safety management system has received ISO 45001:2018 certification.' But on Monday morning, the workers were left to their own devices. The green board requirement for hazardous waste display was blank when the Fire Department and rescue workers reached the site of explosion leaving them clueless about what they are handling.
The slow-paced rescue effort and absence of information is linked to risk perception and value of human life, says an expert. 'There is a systemic reason and a deep-rooted problem. We have low value for human life and low cost of life. By low cost of life, I mean the amount of compensation that will be paid out. In the US, the value of life is not high but the cost of life is high. If there is an accident the payout will be huge. The result is that the standards of safety are high,' says Sagar Dhara, an environment engineer who specialises in risk analysis, putting things in perspective.
'Safety management in Indian industry and safety regulation by government regulators is tardy. Both underestimate the probability of toxic releases, fires and explosions and risk mitigation does not get the attention it deserves,' says Mr. Dhara.
'We have seen many fire accidents right from Deccan Mall, Swapanlok Complex, Gulzar Houz and now yet another today near Hyderabad. It's a wake-up call for industry and regulators. Both industries and government bodies must revisit and reinforce zoning laws, permit conditions, and safety compliance frameworks — especially in fast-growing clusters like Pashamylaram,' says S.P. Anchuri, a structural engineer reacting to the accident on Monday where the collapsed building led to high death toll.
'I am not sure if the response was appropriate, given that not much info is available even after hours of the accident. However, this chemical industrial estate has been witnessing accidents regularly. In that sense, I don't think preparation was on a par to prevent and respond,' says environment activist Donthi Narasimha Reddy, flagging the pharma unit's preparedness for an accident of this scale.
