At least 18 workers were killed and 20 others rescued when a massive fire swept through a chemical factory at an industrial area at Urwade in Mulshi tehsil of Pune district on Monday afternoon.
Having recovered 15 charred bodies from the accident site till the Monday evening, the fire brigade officials recovered two more bodies later in the night from the factory premises where the fire had broken out at around 3.30 pm.
In all, there were anywhere from 37 to 40 workers inside the factory when the fire broke out. Using a JCB machine, the fire brigade personnel demolished a wall and rescued at least 20 workers trapped inside the factory engulfed by fire.
“Of the workers inside the factory at the time of the mishap, we have rescued 20 persons. We have recovered 17 bodies. ” a senior fire brigade official said.
The fire brigade officials said that a majority of the labourers killed in the mishap were women.
Though the factory where the fire broke out was described by the local officials as a sanitiser manufacturing unit, the fire brigade said later in the evening that it was a factory manufacturing chemicals for water purifiers.