5 severely injured in reactor blast at Hetero Drugs Ltd in Visakhapatnam

On the night of 23 February 2022, a tragic blast took place at the Hetero Drugs Limited industry located at Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam District. A total of five causalities were reported out of which 2 persons are in critical condition. Following the fire accident, the Hetero Drugs Ltd management had to shut down the plant and put a halt to all the operations until further notice. While three of the victims were shifted to a hospital in Health City, the remaining two were admitted to a hospital in Visakhapatnam owing to serious burns.

Last night, a blast took place at the DMVSO plant at the Hetero Drugs Ltd in Visakhapatnam, which caused a fire explosion to take place. Being an enclosed area, the fire spread in the plant instantly and caused major burns to five employees present at the time of the accident. Though the company management reported that five persons were injured, the police have reported six causalities. They were identified as A. Sairam, Gopalkrishna Das, Gangadhar Sahu, Veerraju, Mahesh, and Raju. The persons in a critical situation, Sairam and Gangadhar, were said to be chemists and are undergoing treatment in a hospital in Visakhapatnam.

Some of the other workers, who were present at the plant at the time of the fire accident, fled from the scene upon noticing the fire. A fire brigade was sent to the plant and doused the fires. The police and Hetero Drugs Ltd authorities are yet to figure out the reason behind the accident. This is not the first time such a fire accident has happened at Hetero Drugs Ltd. Despite a number of fire accidents being reported in the district, especially in pharma industries, the management of these companies have failed to come up with precautionary measures to avoid them.

Earlier this month, a similar fire accident took place at an empty barrel dump yard near Parawada Health City. In another incident, four people were severely injured by a reactor blast at Aktinos Pharma Pvt. Ltd, two weeks ago.