Man ‘boils to death’ in factory accident

45-year-old worker fell into hot water pool while working at sugar mill

TANDLIANWALA:

A chemical department employee of a sugar mill in Tandlianwala was killed after falling into a hot water pool during work on Friday.

Authorities handed over the body to his heirs after initial proceedings. Reportedly, 45-year-old Munir Ahmed, son of Abdullah, and a resident of Chak No 447GB, Sammundri, was an employee in the chemical department of a local sugar mill in Tandlianwala tehsil. During work, he fell into a hot water pool and died due to burn injuries. The mill management handed over the body of the deceased to the heirs. Causalities due to accidents owing to poor working environment and lack of safety measures have been reported frequently in the province.

On January 8, at least three labourers were burnt alive in an incident of fire in a furnace oil factory in Rana Town area of Sheikhupura district. The fire reportedly broke out because of an explosion in a boiler, and all of a sudden it turned into a huge one. A caller intimated Rescue 1122 about the fire and said that two or three persons of the staff were missing. The area is around 10 kilometres away from Shahdara, Lahore and some 50 km from Sheikhupura city. The Rescue 1122 teams were dispatched from Lahore and Sheikhupura.

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At least 30 Rescuers and 10 Rescue 1122 vehicles participated in the rescue operation which was led by District Emergency Officer Sheikhupura (DEO) Rana Ejaz. The rescuers strived first to evacuate the victims and bodies after they reached the site. They launched the search operation and evacuated three bodies. The bodies were shifted to a morgue. Due to the fire, a portion of the factory building collapsed. Reportedly, highly combustible material and furnace oil were present inside the factory in huge quantity. On June 8 last year, a boiler explosion at an oil refinery in Thikriwala, Faisalabad killed six people. The flames completely engulfed the oil drums and depots and about 30 employees working in the depot were stuck.

The roofs of the rooms also collapsed. The incident resulted in some of the workers escaping the scene while the rest were engulfed in the fire which resulted in the death of six labourers. The deceased included 21-year-old Shahadat, a resident of Chiniot, Raja Naeem son of Afzal, resident of Dhok Mona, Jhelum, Faryad, son of Mazhar Hussain, resident of Chak No 251GB, Mochiwala, Jhang, Zahid, son of Sharif and resident of Sardarpur, Kabirwala tehsil, Khanewal district, Hazara Khan, son of Imam and resident of Khairpur and Rashid, son of Latif and resident of DG Khan.

In addition to this, Azam, son of Rafiq and resident of Islampur, Muhammad Waseem, son of Haji Inayat and resident of Sitara Sapna City, Sarfraz, son of Mushtaq and resident of Chak No 224GB, Sheikh Kamran, son of Raheeb and resident of Kot DG Khairpur, Sindh, Naeem, son of Mazhar, sustained burn injuries. On February 12 last year, four workers were killed and 11 were injured when a boiler exploded at a dyeing factory on Sargodha Road, Faisalabad. The boiler explosion in the early morning left 15 labourers buried in rubble at the processing and dyeing factory. As the boiler exploded, the factory building collapsed. Window and door glasses in nearby factories and offices were smashed by the explosion. After six hours of continuous rescue work with heavy machines, officials removed the debris and rushed the injured labourers to hospital in a number of vehicles.