Hyderabad: Fifteen workers at a bakery were injured in a fire caused by a leak in a piped cooking gas supply on Thursday, with nine suffering over 50 per cent burns. They are currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kanchanbagh.
The incident took place at 10.10 am when the workers were preparing consumables for the popular Karachi Bakery chain of stores, the RGIA Shamshabad police said.
“The leak in the nozzle caused a fire that spread throughout the kitchen. The stove was on and over 15 workers were busy preparing the eatables while a few others were preparing the raw material,” said V. Chandra Naik, Rajendranagar station fire officer.
The injured were identified as Dara Singh, 37, Subash, Prajapathi, 18, Deepak Sukla, 27, Mukesh Kumar, 27, Sujith, 19, Aditya Kumar, 19, Prashant Kumar, 23, Sunny, 20, and Pradeep Kumar, all of whom suffered over 50 per cent burns and are in a critical condition.
The others injured were Balaram, 25, Sandeep Prajapathi, 23, Amresh Kumar, 28, Sonu, 30, Kamal Kishan, 24, and Sandeep Kumar, 26.
“By the time we reached, some of the workers had tripped the main gas valve averting further damage. The cylinders that were connected to the plant were placed outside the kitchen,” Chandra Naik said.
Naik said that safety norms were followed, with workers immediately informing their MD and treating themselves using a first-aid kit placed in the kitchen.
“The bakery management rushed to the scene and shifted the injured to a hospital. Meanwhile, our firefighters sprayed CO2 chemical powder in the kitchen as a preventive measure; the fire burst through the oven due to a leak in the gas pipeline. The unit is situated in an industrial area,” Chandra Naik said.
D. Appa Rao, RGIA Shamshabad police sub-inspector, said: “We rushed to the scene after we were informed by locals. Meanwhile, we also alerted the fire department.”
The police said that the workers were professional bakers from Uttar Pradesh and had been working in the unit for a long period. The victims’ families were informed and a case of fire accident was registered, the police said.
Expressing shock over the fire accident at the unit, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy directed authorities concerned to provide the best possible medical treatment to the injured, following which they were admitted to the Kanchanbagh hospital.
The Chief Minister later held a meeting with the state chief secretary of the medical and health department about the medical condition of the injured.
