7 bodies of workers recovered from fire-hit chemical unit in Surat

Surat: A day after a major fire engulfed a chemical manufacturing facility in Gujarat's Surat city, bodies of seven missing workers were recovered from the premises in the early hours of Thursday, officials said.

Out of the seven persons found dead at the chemical manufacturing unit of Aether Industries Ltd in Sachin industrial area of the city, one was an employee of the company while six others were working on contract, Surat Collector Ayush Oak said.

"During a search operation in the factory premises, officials found bodies of seven workers who went missing after the fire which engulfed the plant on Wednesday," he said.

The deceased have been identified as Divyesh Patel (company employee), Santosh Vishwakarma, Sanat Kumar Mishra, Dharmendra Kumar, Ganesh Prasad, Sunil Kumar and Abhishek Singh.

The collector said 24 people who were injured in the incident are currently receiving treatment in different hospitals.

The fire broke out at the chemical plant at around 2 am on Wednesday following an explosion in a large tank after leakage of inflammable chemicals stored in it, Surat in-charge chief fire officer Basant Pareek earlier said.

As many as 15 fire tenders were engaged in the fire-fighting operation which went on for nine hours to bring the blaze under control.

In a statement dated November 29 and submitted to stock exchanges, the company said, "...we hereby inform that an incident of fire was reported at manufacturing site of the company at Plot No. 8203, GIDC Sachin, Surat, today early morning around 01:50 Hrs." Injuries to approximately 25 people have been reported, it had said.