Twenty-four people, including corporator Jagannath Sable and some fire brigade personnel, were hospitalised following leak of chlorine gas in the wee hours of Tuesday from a cylinder at the sewage treatment plant (STP) at Bhatnagar, in Pimpri.
The gas leak from a cylinder, weighing around 900 kg, was among a dozen such cylinders kept at the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC)-managed STP. Apparently one of the valves of the cylinder was damaged.
The spread of the toxic gas caused panic among the 30,000-odd residents of nearby Ramabai Ambedkarnagar. The residents woke up from sleep upon experiencing breathlessness and uneasiness. They came out of their homes into streets to get fresh air.
The situation was brought under control after six hours. Civic staff evacuated the residents to safety. Three ambulances of the PCMC ferried people complaining of uneasiness to hospitals.
Roads in the vicinity were blocked for an hour from 7 am, preventing the movement of vehicles. This caused chaos on Pimpri overbridge and Bhatnagar Road. School and company buses were caught in the traffic jam.
The leakage was detected around 3:30 am by two night guards at the STP, Bharat Jadhav and Ganesh Khilare. “We started experiencing severe breathing problem and saw gas leaking from the container. We covered our faces with wet cloth and managed to push the cylinder into water at the plant, along with two other staff,” said Jadhav.
The fire brigade personnel reached the spot and added large amounts of caustic soda to the chlorinator to dilute the gas and reduce its effect. YCM Hospital director, Dr AD Jagdale, said the condition of those admitted was stable.
