A chilling plant operator, Manvendra Singh(35), at a dairy unit suffocated to death after ammonia gas leaked around 8.30 pm on Tuesday. Five other employees managed to escape.
The fire dept recovered the body after two hours. The unit is owned by BJP functionary and former block pramukh of Pinahat, Sugriv Singh Chauhan located at Pokhariya village, under the Nibohara police station .There was panic in the area after news of the gas leak spread.
A villager said over two dozen dairy farmers were present at the place when stench of ammonia gas became unbearable due to the leak.
Police soon arrived but couldn’t enter the plant, and an operation to rescue the trapped worker began only after the fire brigade arrived two hours later, but by then he was already dead.
“Manvendra Singh from Nagla Harsukh village died of suffocation due to the gas leak. No other workers were trapped inside the plant. The fire department is investigating the matter,” said SHO Amardeep Sharma.
A fire brigade official said, “Preliminary investigation suggests that lack of proper maintenance and servicing of cooling machines resulted in the gas leak. The final probe report will be sent to the district administration for further action.”
“Exposure to high levels of ammonia in air may irritate the skin, eyes, throat and lungs, and cause coughing and burns. Lung damage and death may occur after exposure to very high concentration of ammonia,” official added.
Dairy owner Chauhan said, “Manvendra had been working as pump operator for the past several years. We will take care of his family.”
In 2018, an ammonia gas leak from a cold storage plant in Ghaagpura village caused potato crops across four villages of the Fatehabad development block in Agra district to wither, affecting some 500 farmers. Following protests by the affected farmers, a case was filed against the owner and employees of Gargi cold storage center.
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