Boiler blast: ‘There were no safety measures for workers’

Rescue operation likely to take more than 20 hours, say officials.

LAHORE:

“I was working at the ground floor when the blast occurred in the morning. First the roof of the first floor fell and then entire building came down. I don’t remember what happened next,” said Parveen, one of the six injured being treated at Jinnah Hospital on Monday.

Parveen, 18, was among the 22 people who were injured when the building of Orient Lab Limited, a pharmaceutical laboratory on Multan Road, collapsed after one of the boilers exploded.

More than 60 people still remain trapped underneath the rubble. Ten of the 22 others injured were taken to Jinnah Hospital of which four died during treatment. Those who died at the hospital were identified as Salma Bibi, Fauzia Amjad, Nasreen Bibi and Tanveer Ali.  Parveen’s sister, Nasreen Bibi, was among one of the deceased. Her second sister, Nazia Bibi, was also injured and is also being treated at Jinnah Hospital along with Parveen.

Another injured, Asad Akram, told The Express Tribune, that more than 150 people worked at the factory, including women and children.

“It was early so that not all the staff had come to work yet. Still there were more than 50 people inside,” he said.

Saqib Mushtaq, 25, who worked at the animal medicines department, also got injured in the blast.

Injured Shumaila Anwar, 15, said she had been working at the factory for less than a year.  “I could hear people crying and screaming from underneath the rubble. It was horrifying.” She was pulled out in about two hours. Shahida Sufiyan, another injured, said there were no safety measures for the workers. She said the building had already been in a dilapidated condition and could not bear the blast.

Jinnah Hospital’s Dr Salahuddin said the injured were being treated under best possible arrangements. He said some of them had been discharged after treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2012.