Vizag Gas Leak: Foul toxic vapours from LG Chem chase locals to farther places

Residents of Gopalapatnam area, a densely populated Visakhapatnam suburb 3 kms from where LG Chem unit is located, woke up on Thursday to a nasty smell of chemical substances and severe burning in their eyes, nostrils, and throats.

The situation worsened as one moved towards the chemical unit at R R Venkatapuram, where the Styrene vapours leak caused about 11 deaths and hospitalised over 300 locals. Several people dropped to the ground unconscious and children especially were badly affected after inhaling the toxic substance.

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Panicky Gopalapatnam residents left their homes towards the city, to their friends and relatives’ houses understandably unmindful of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The mishap occurred at 3.30 am and the vapours spread to the NAD Junction, a busy intersection near to the Vizag airport and about 5 km away from LG Chem, by around 7 am.

“My brother’s family in Gopalapatnam felt the strong foul smell at around 6 am and immediately rushed to our house in NAD. Later we too experienced bad odour and reactions including nausea. The impact continued till 3 pm,” Bhaskar Rao, a resident of an apartment complex opposite the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, told DH. "Some families in our complex left the building to farther locations."

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Vizag, a port city, and the Eastern Naval Command are heavily industrialised with many PSUs like the Vizag Steel Plant, Hindustan Shipyard, HPCL, NTPC, BHEL. There are many manufacturing units in the private sector too like the Pharma production units in the Paravada area.

Despite the focus on safety standards and compliances, the city is not new to industrial mishaps, which claim many lives every year. A blast in August 2013 inside the HPCL Visakh refinery had killed 28 workers.

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“But I think this is the first time that an industrial mishap in Vizag has killed people outside while no fatalities are reported from inside,” says U S Sharma, former chief manager, public relations at HPCL Visakh and VP (South), Public Relations Society of India.