Delhi: Four injured in blast at illegal plastic bag factory

Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services, said that his department received a call about the blaze at around 11.15am, following which 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot

Four workers at a plastic bags manufacturing unit in northwest Delhi’s Libaspur were injured after an explosion at the factory on Monday morning, police officers aware of the matter said.

A fire tender near the plastic bag manufacturing unit at Libaspur on Monday. (ANI)

Police said that three of the workers received relatively minor injuries and were discharged from hospital by evening, but a fourth, identified as Subhita, 46, received over 50% burns and had to be referred from the emergency department of the Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital to Lok Nayak Hospital, said Ravi Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north).

The DCP said that a case has been registered at the Samaypur Badli police station against factory owner Arun Jain.

Ajay Sharma, assistant divisional officer of Rohini Fire Station, who oversaw the fire-fighting operations, said that it was too early to comment on what caused the blast. “Locals said it was a blast in a commercial cooking cylinder, but we couldn’t find its debris. We believe that the blast happened in some chemicals,” he said.

“The area where this factory is located is not an authorised industrial area. This factory and others like it are operating unauthorised.”

The police said they were probing the factory’s legal status.

HT was unable to reach Jain for a comment.

Atul Garg, director of Delhi Fire Services, said that his department received a call about the blaze at around 11.15am, following which 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

Sharma said the factory was operating out of the ground floor of a building constructed over a 200 square yard plot. “The first floor too has a factory,” he said, adding that the blaze was limited to the ground floor.

DCP Singh said a local policeman, Amit, reached the spot after the police received a PCR call. “He helped rescue the four victims and move them to hospital,” said the DCP.

Sharma said that by the time the fire fighters reached the scene, the injured were already rescued. “We saw the two iron gates at two sides of the factory blown and landing across the 25-feet streets. People outside were fortunate not to be hit by the gates. The blowing up of the gates released the pressure from inside and ensured that the building’s structure did not face any immediate visible problems,” Sharma said.

High heat caused by the blaze kept the firemen fighting the blaze from outside for nearly 45 minutes before they made inroads and brought the situation fully under control over the next three hours, said Sharma.